ALEXANDER, whose adventures gave rise to Defoe's well-known historical romance of Robinson Crusoe, was born at Largo, in Fifeshire, Scotland, about the year 1676. He was bred a seaman, and went from England in 1703, in the capacity of sailing-master of a small vessel called the Cinque-Ports galley, Charles Pickering captain. In September the same year he sailed from Cork, in company with another ship called the St George, commanded by the celebrated navigator William Dampier, intended to cruise against the Spaniards in the South Sea. On the coast of Brazil, Pickering died, and was succeeded in the command by his lieutenant Thomas Stradling. They proceeded on their voyage round Cape Horn to the island of Juan Fernandez, whence they were driven by the appearance of two French ships of thirty-six guns each, and left five of Stradling's men there on shore, who were taken off by the French. From this they sailed to the coast of America, where Dampier and Stradling quarrelled, and separated by agreement, on the 19th of May 1704. In September following, Stradling came again to the island of Juan Fernandez, where Selkirk and his captain had a difference, which, with the circumstance of the ship's being very leaky, and in bad condition, induced him to determine upon staying there alone; but when his companions were about to depart, his resolution was shaken, and he desired to be taken on board again. The captain, however, refused to admit him, and he was obliged to remain, having nothing but his clothes, bedding, a gun, and a small quantity of powder and ball; a hatchet, a knife, and a kettle; with his books, and mathematical and nautical instruments. He kept up his spirits tolerably till he saw the vessel put off, when, as he afterwards related, his heart yearned within him, and melted at parting at once with his comrades and all human society.

Thus left sole monarch of the island, with plenty of the necessaries of life, he found himself in a situation which was hardly supportable. He had fish, goats' flesh, turnips and other vegetables; yet he grew dejected, languid, and melancholy, to such a degree, as to be scarcely able to refrain from doing violence to himself. Eighteen months passed before he could, by reasoning, reading his Bible, and study, be thoroughly reconciled to his condition. At length he grew happy, employing himself in decorating his huts, chasing the goats, whom he equalled in speed, and scarcely ever failed in catching. He also tamed young kids, lamming them to prevent their becoming wild; and he kept a guard of tame cats about him, to defend him when asleep from the rats, that were very troublesome. When his clothes were worn out, he made others of goat-skins, but could not succeed in making shoes, with the use of which, however, habit, in time, enabled him to dispense. His only liquor was water. He computed that during his abode in the island he had caught a thousand goats, of which he had let go five hundred, after marking them by slitting their ears. Commodore Anson's people, who were there about thirty years afterwards, found the first goat which they shot upon landing was thus marked, and, as it appeared to be very old, concluded that it had been under the power of Selkirk. But it appears by Captain Carteret's account of his voyage in the Swallow sloop, that other persons practised this mode of marking, as he found a goat with his ears thus slit on the neighbouring island of Mas-a-fuera, where Selkirk never was. He made companions of his tame goats and cats, often dancing and singing with them. Although he constantly performed his devotions at stated hours, and read aloud, yet, when he was taken off the island, his language, from disuse of conversation, had become scarcely intelligible. In this solitude he continued four years and four months, during which time only two incidents happened which he thought worth relating, the occurrences of every day being in his circumstances nearly similar. The one was, that, pursuing a goat eagerly, he caught it just on the edge of a precipice, which was covered with bushes, so that he did not perceive it; and he fell to the bottom, where he lay, according to Captain Rogers's account, twenty-four hours senseless; but, as he related to Sir Richard Steele, he computed, by the alteration of the moon, that he had lain three days. When he came to himself, he found the goat lying under him dead. It was with great difficulty that he could crawl to his habitation, whence he was unable to stir for ten days, and did not recover of his bruises for a long time. The other event was the arrival of a ship, which he at first supposed to be French. And such is the natural love of society in the human mind, that he was eager to abandon his solitary felicity, and surrender himself to them, although enemies; but upon their landing he found them to be Spaniards, of whom he had too great a dread to trust himself in their hands. They were by this time so near that it required all his agility to escape, which he effected by climbing into a thick tree, being shot at several times as he ran off. Fortunately the Spaniards did not discover him, though they stayed some time under the tree where he was hidden, and killed some goats just by. In this solitude Selkirk remained until the 2d of February 1709, when he saw two ships come into the bay, and knew them to be English. He immediately lighted a fire as a signal; and on their coming on shore, found they were the Duke, Captain Rogers, and the Duchess, Captain Courtney, being two privateers from Bristol. He gave them the best entertainment he could afford; and as they had been a long time at sea without fresh provisions, the goats which he caught were highly acceptable. His habitation, consisting of two huts, one to sleep in, and the other for dressing his food, was so obscurely situated, and so difficult of access, that only one of the ship's officers would accompany him to it. Dampier, who was pilot on board the Duke, and knew Selkirk very well, told Captain Rogers that, when on board the Cinque-Ports, he was the best seaman in the vessel, upon which Captain Rogers appointed him master's mate of the Duke. After a fortnight's stay at Juan Fernandez, the ships proceeded on their cruise against the Spaniards; plundered a town on the coast of Peru; took a Manilla ship off Califor- Selkirk; and returned by way of the East Indies to England, where they arrived on the 1st of October 1711; Selkirk having been absent, on the day of his arrival in London, eight years one month and three days, more than half of which time he had spent alone on the island. The public curiosity being excited respecting him, he was induced to put his papers into the hands of Defoe, to arrange and form them into a regular narrative. These papers must have been drawn up after he left Juan Fernandez, as he had no means of recording his transactions there. Captain Cooke remarks, as an extraordinary circumstance, that he had contrived to keep an account of the days of the week and the month; but this might be done, as Defoe makes Robinson Crusoe do, by cutting notches in a post, or many other methods. From this account of Selkirk, Defoe adopted the notion of writing a more extensive work, the romance of Robinson Crusoe, and very dishonestly defrauded the original proprietor of his share of the profits. After his return to England he waited in London till he got his effects realized, and then proceeded, in the spring of 1712, to his native village Largo. For a few days he enjoyed the society of his relatives and friends; but, from long habit, he soon felt averse to society, and was most happy in being alone. In the upper part of the garden attached to his father's house, he formed a kind of cave or grotto, which commanded an extensive and delightful view of the bay of Largo, and the shores of the Forth. In musing here, or wandering through a secluded and solitary valley called Keil's Den, and fishing in the bay, he spent the greater part of his time. How long he remained here cannot be ascertained, but he eloped some time afterwards with a girl of the neighbourhood, named Sophia Bruce, and proceeded with her to London. He never returned to Largo, and but little is known of him during the latter part of his life. Sophia Bruce appears to have died between 1717 and 1720; for in the latter year he again married Frances Candis, who survived him. Selkirk died lieutenant on board his majesty's ship Weymouth, some time in the year 1723; and it is believed that he had no children by either of his wives.

ancient royal burgh, and chief town of the county of Selkirk, in Scotland. It is situated on an elevation overlooking the valley of the river Ettrick, and commands an extensive view. It consists chiefly of one street, which expands at the market-place into an open space; and in it is the ancient tolbooth. In addition to this main street, there are a few small streets that diverge from it. The town has not increased in size or in importance for centuries; but it has been much improved of late years, and now contains many good houses, with a town-hall, having an elegant spire 110 feet in height, and in which there are apartments for the burgh and sheriff courts. There are two places of worship, one belonging to the established church, and the other to the United Associate Synod. A new prison has been erected at the north side of the town; and it also possesses several excellent schools, in which the classics, French, Italian, and the more usual branches, are taught.

Selkirk was formerly famed for the manufacture of shoes, in which it had an extensive trade; but it has now no manufactures of any consequence, the restrictions on trade, and the jealousy of the burghers or freemen, preventing young men of small capital from pushing business, and forcing them to repair to places more open to enterprise. The property of the burgh extends to 1784 acres, and its yearly income amounts to nearly £1,100. In 1833, its debts amounted to £16,088. It is governed by a provost, two bailies, a treasurer, and twenty-nine councillors; and it votes with the county in returning a member to parliament. The population of the burgh and parish in 1821 amounted to 2728, and in 1831 to 2833. The population of the burgh alone in the latter year was 1880.

During the wars between England and Scotland the citizens of Selkirk were famed for their courage. A party of them, amounting to between eighty and a hundred, under the command of the town-clerk, William Brydone, proceeded to the battle of Flodden, and fought with such gallantry that only a few returned. Brydone was afterwards knighted for his conduct; and the town received from James V. a grant of a thousand acres, as a recompense for the courage of the burghers, and for the town being totally burned by the English, in revenge for the bravery displayed by them at that battle. Brydone's sword is still in the possession of his lineal descendants; and a pennon, taken, it is believed, from the Percys, by a person of the name of Fletcher, is still kept by the successive deacons of the weavers, and displayed on all civic occasions by that corporation. A mile north from the town is Philiphaugh, where the celebrated Marquis of Montrose was defeated by the covenanters under General Leslie.

SELKIRKSHIRE, a county of Scotland, situated between 55° 21' and 55° 42' north latitude, and between 2° 48' and 3° 20' west longitude from Greenwich. It has Mid-Lothian, or the county of Edinburgh, on the north; Roxburghshire on the east and south-east; Dumfriesshire on the south; and Peeblesshire, or Tweeddale, on the west; the line which separates it from these counties being on all sides, but especially the south, exceedingly irregular. Its area has been computed very differently; but, according to the latest authorities, it appears that its extreme length is thirty miles, its extreme breadth twenty, and it is calculated to contain 264½ square miles, nearly equal to 169,280 English acres. It includes only two entire parishes, Yarrow and Ettrick; the parishes of Selkirk and Galashiels being partly in Roxburghshire. These may be said to form the county, although small parts of the parishes of Ashkirk, Inverleithen, Peebles, Roberton, and Stow, are also included in it.

This is almost entirely a pastoral district, and in many respects bears a resemblance to the higher parts of the contiguous county of Roxburgh. Like the latter county, the general declivity of the mountain range is from west-south-west to east-north-east, and all its streams discharge themselves into the Tweed. The rocks are of the transition series, and are chiefly graywacke, graywacke-slate, and clay-slate. On the borders of Peeblesshire extensive layers of porphyry, alternating with thin strata of slate and granite, are to be found. The hills are generally ridge-shaped, and rounded on the tops, with acclivities of from 10° to 30°. The secondary valleys are small, being caused by the Ettrick and Yarrow running nearly parallel, and at no very great distance from each other; but where the Yarrow and Tweed diverge, the valleys increase in magnitude, as they are then drained by larger streams. Several of the hills are above 2300 feet in height, such as Windlestraw Law, at the northern extremity of the county, on the confines of Mid-Lothian; Blackhouse Heights (2370); Minchmoor (2280), on the borders of Peeblesshire; and Ettrick-pen (2200), on the south-west boundary. The lower hills are for the most part green, and afford good pasturage for sheep; but heath prevails on many of the higher grounds, especially towards the south-west. The lowest land is 280 feet, and the sites of many of the houses are from 600 to 1000 feet and upwards, above the level of the sea.

The rivers are, the Tweed, which crosses the north side of the county in its course from Peeblesshire on the west to Roxburghshire on the east; the Gala, which for some distance forms the boundary with Roxburghshire on the north-east, and falls into the Tweed, from the north, a little

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1 Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, by John Howell, Edinburgh. below Galashiels; the Cador, a very beautiful stream, which also joins the Tweed from the north; the Ettrick and Yarrow, which have their sources on the confines of the county of Dumfries, and, flowing north-east almost parallel to each other, join their streams above Selkirk, and afterwards, under the name of Ettrick, passing to the west of that town, and for a short distance along the boundary with Roxburghshire, enter the Tweed, in which their name is lost, and which then becomes the boundary with that county; the Ale, which rises in the north-east, and soon after passes into Roxburghshire; and also the Borthwick, which washes the north-eastern boundary. Next to the Tweed, the most considerable waters are the Ettrick and the Yarrow, which receive, in the first instance, nearly all the other streams that traverse this district. Both have been celebrated in song, and have given their names to some plaintive melodies of great beauty and feeling. The scenery on the Yarrow is exceedingly romantic and delightful. Soon after its rise, it passes through two lakes, the Loch of the Lowes, and St Mary's Loch; the latter, which is separated from the former only by a narrow neck of level ground, and is three miles long, having its banks partly covered with coppice-wood, is the finest piece of water in the south of Scotland. From thence the Yarrow flows for eight or nine miles, through sheep-walks, without wood or cultivation; but afterwards the sides of the lofty hills in its course are covered with wood to a considerable height, and its valley is embellished with a variety of bushes and wild flowers. Ettrick, the larger stream, has a wider and more cultivated valley; and a little before it receives the Yarrow, natural wood begins to appear on its banks. It afterwards flows for four miles through a rich tract, sheltered by plantations on the hills, till it loses its name in the Tweed. From this river the whole district has been sometimes called Ettrick Forest; but the name of Forest here, as elsewhere, has long since ceased to denote the existence of extensive woodlands, of which, whatever may have been the case formerly, scarcely any traces now remain. Besides the two lakes we have mentioned, a great many smaller ones are scattered over the east and south-east quarters, of which the more considerable are Loch Alemoor, the principal source of the Ale, and Loch Oakermoor, noted for the vast quantity of marl which it contains.

This county is deficient in coal, limestone, and sandstone, and it lies under the same disadvantages as Roxburghshire, from the great distance at which it lies from markets where coal and lime are to be had. It is fortunate, however, that in the lakes and mosses there is a great deal of marl, which serves as excellent manure for the arable land in their vicinity. The arable land lies on an elevation of from 280 to 800 feet, and does not much exceed one twentieth of the whole county. It is light, dry, and easily cultivated; and it produces wheat, oats, barley or bear, turnips, and potatoes. Wheat is regularly grown in the lower parts of the county, and even in the higher it has been raised at the height of 700 feet, yielding a good return; and it may be said that agriculture is as well understood and followed out in this as in any other of the Scotch counties. The rotation in crops is generally on the five-shift system of husbandry; although, near the towns, where land is high and manure can be easily had, the four-shift is too often followed. This has increased the disease of the turnip crop, called fingers-and-toes, and has proved very injurious to the red clover.

The average rent of land is, on the arable farms, from one pound four shillings to three pounds an acre; and on the pastoral farms from two shillings and sixpence to five shillings and sixpence an acre. The grazing of an ox or cow throughout the year is about five pounds. In Ettrick it is from two pounds to two pounds five shillings; and that of a sheep is from four shillings and sixpence to six shillings and sixpence. The wages paid to farm-servants and shepherds are nearly the same as in Roxburghshire. The following summary of the produce and value of the parishes of Selkirk, Galashiels, Yarrow, and Ettrick, as stated in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, will more fully explain the value of the county.

| Parish | Acres | |------------|-------| | Selkirk | 10 | | Galashiels | 15 | | Yarrow | 111 | | Ettrick | 63 |

The leases of the farms on the Buccleuch estates are for nine years; but this is almost no drawback, as the occupiers are rarely removed. On other estates the leases run generally for nineteen years.

The rest of the county is almost exclusively occupied by sheep, which are now, for the most part, of the Cheviot breed, though not often pure, and scarcely in any instance equal to those of Roxburghshire. The black-faced or forest breed are better adapted for the greater part of the pasture than the Cheviots; but their wool is coarse, and not well adapted for manufacture. Yet it is generally allowed, that if proper care were taken to cross the ewes with Cheviot rams, and never allow them to recross, a stock of sheep suitable to the range of pasture, and with improved wool, would soon increase, and take the place of the present breed. The number of sheep usually in pasture amounts to 55,000, of which 3000 or 4000 are of the black-faced, 4000 Leicesters, and the remainder Cheviots. The cows are mostly of the short-horned, or of the Ayrshire breeds. Small farmers and farmers prefer the latter, as being more easily brought up, and affording more milk. Highland stots have been introduced, within these few years, to pasture among the sheep, as it has been found that from the complete draining of the district, the overflow of succulent grasses is such, that without a mixture of cattle with the sheep, the grasses totally lost. The greater number of cattle a farmer keeps on his pasture, according to its extent, from May to the middle of August, the more sheep he is able to feed during winter. The valued rent of the county is L80,307. 13s. 6d. Scotch, and the real rent of the lands and houses in 1812 was L41,162. 10s. sterling. The annual value of real property, as assessed in April 1815, was L43,584. Two fifths of the whole property are held under entail. The principal proprietors are the Duke of Buccleuch, who possesses about one half of the extent, and about one third of the rental; the Earl of Traquair, Lords Elibank and Napier, Johnston of Alva, with fifteen other proprietors, whose lands stand valued in the cess-books from L1000 to L2000 Scotch.

county town, and the town of Galashiels, contain nearly all that part of the population which is not employed in agriculture. A considerable portion of the wool of the county finds a ready market at Galashiels. An inkle-work and some tanneries are the only other branches carried on for sale out of the county; so that its exports consist chiefly of raw produce, of which its sheep and wool are by far the most considerable articles.

(See Douglas' Survey of Selkirkshire; the New Statistical Account of Scotland, No. 1; and the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 18.)