Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

60
JEDBURGH.
JEDBURGH, a parish in the southern division of
Roxburghshire. It consists of two detached parts,
lying a mile asunder, and both stretching lengthwise
from south to north. The southern division, though
the smaller, is the original Jedburgh ; and it is
bounded on the north-east and east by Oxnam ; on
the south by Northumberland; and on the west by
Southdean. Its form is nearly a circle of 3| miles in
diameter, with a projection northward of irregular
outline, 2i miles long, and about J of a mile in aver-
age breadth. Its surface rapidly descends from the
summit range or water-shedding line of the Cheviots
on its southern boundary to an undulating plain,
shooting up occasionally in beautiful, and in some
instances high, green conical hills, and ploughed to-
ward the north by the narrow vale of the Jed. The
northern and larger division has the outline of an
irregular pentagon, with a small oblong figure pro-
jecting at a wide angle and from a brief line of at-
tachment on the east ; and it is bounded on the
north by Ancrum and Grading ; on the north-east
by Eckford ; on the east by Hounam and Oxnam;
on the south by Southdean ; and on the west by
Bedrule. In extreme length, from north to south,
it measures 6^ miles, and, in average length, about
5.1 ; and, in extreme breadth, exclusive of the east-
ward projection, it measures 51 miles, and in average
breadth 4J-. The projecting part stretches north-
west and south-east, and measures 2* miles by 1^.
From the deep, and, in some places, furrow-like vale
of the Jed, the surface rises undulating on both sides,
in an enchanting variety of form, to the height of
about 300 feet above the level of the stream, cut by
numerous ravines, and exceedingly varied in the out-
line of its knolls and hillocks. But on its west side,
first along the boundary from the southern end on-
ward, and next in the interior, it rises into the regu-
larly ascending and elongated Dunian, and at the site
and in the vicinity of the town sends off the roots
of that lofty hill almost from the very edge of the
Jed, leaving hardly sufficient space for a convenient
street arrangement of the burgh : See the article
Dunian. Behind the northern part of the hill, or
along the southern frontier, the surface is a level and
luxuriant haugh, watered by the Teviot, which here
forms, for 3J miles, the boundary-line, and spreads
freely around it the wealth and the mirthfulness of
soil and landscape which distinguish the lower and
longer part of its course. On the east Oxnam- water,
flowing northward to the Teviot, forms for a mile
the boundary-line, and, for another mile, runs across
the connecting part or neck of the projecting district.
. — -The whole extent of the parish, in both of its sec-
tions, and also a large portion of the conterminous
country, was anciently wooded with what is known
in history as Jed forest. About 100 years ago a
large expanse of the forest continued to spread its
umbrageous carpeting upon the soil ; but during the
course of last century it was almost all peddlingly
and remorselessly cut down. A few patches of it,
consisting principally of birch trees, still exist at
Fernihirst, in the vale of the Jed, near the southern
extremity of the northern division ; and two vener-
able representatives of it, called 'the King of the
wood,' and, ' the Capon-tree,' arrest attention lower
down the vale, about a mile from the burgh. One
of the trees — the monarch one — has a retinue of
younger and less noble trees, and rises to the height
of about 100 feet, with a girth near the ground of
14 feet; and the other stands solitarily in a haugh,
abounds in the number, fantastic twistings, and far-
stretching length of its boughs, and has a girth near
the ground of 21 feet. But though the old forest
has so generally fallen before the axe, trees which
have sprung up from its old stocks, and others which
have been raised by planting, are sufficiently numer-
ous to give the parish a sheltered and ornate appear-
ance.. — Iron ore, 3 feet thick in stratum, occurs near
the town. White and red sandstone, of excellent
quality, abounds, and is wrought in several quarries.
Limestone of excellent quality is abundant at Carter-
fell, on the boundary with England, and occurs at
Hunthill 2 miles south-east of the burgh ; but, owing
to the dearth of fuel, it has not, for some time, been
worked. Coal seems in one or two localities to be
indicated, and even appears to have been at one time
found on the Hunthill property ; but it has more
than once, in recent times, eluded expensive and
laborious search. Two chalybeate springs well up
near Jedburgh, and others seem to exist in other
localities. One of the former, called Tudhope well,
has been successfully tried for scorbutic and rheu-
matic disorders. Cultivation has been rapidly and
remarkably extended, and has achieved results which
everywhere impose on the district a rich and smiling
aspect. Fifty years ago not more than a fifth or a
sixth part of the area was arable ground, while all
the rest was pastoral; but now the proportion of
lands in tillage, in pasture, and under wood, is nearly
in the proportion respectively of 29, 15, and 5. The
farm buildings are neat, and, in some instances, al-
most elegant; the enclosures are tasteful and shelter-
ing ; the sides of the Dunian and of other lofty hills
are frilled and beautified with enclosure and culture
a considerable way up their ascent ; and almost all
the land which modern methods of improvement
could reclaim have been subjected to the plough.
The soil, over so extensive and diversified a district,
is necessarily various ; it is, in some places, a tough-
ish clay, — in others, a mixture of clay with sand or
gravel, — and in the lower parts of the vale of the
Jed, as well as in the valley of the Teviot, a rich
and fertile loam. The prevailing husbandry is a,
course of two white and three green crops. The
higher parts of the Dunian, and especially the up-
lands along the boundary with England, are the
sheep-walk of the famed Cheviot breed, — browsing
here, as in coterminous districts, on their proper or
original grounds. The climate of some parts of the
parish, especially in the vale of the Jed, at the part
where the town stands, is famed for its salubrious-
ness. Environed with the high banks of the Jed
on the south and east, and with the gigantic bul-
wark of the Dunian on the west, the town has often
a mildness of temperature when the air, at a mile or
two's distance, is sharp and cold ; and it suffers little
from epidemics compared with the neighbouring
towns of Kelso and Hawick, and was a stranger to
cholera at the period of their bleeding beneath its
scourge. Instances of longevity are so frequent that
the minister who lived at the date of Sir John Sin-
clair's Statistical Account, reported "many" to have
lived to upwards of 90 years of age during the period
of his incumbency. The mansions of the parish are,
in the vale of the Jed, Edgerston, Mossburnford,
Langlee, Hundalee, Stewartheld, and Boonjedward,
and, in other localities, Hunthill, Lintalee, and Glen-
burnhall. There are six corn-mills on the Jed water,
two of them at the burgh. Besides the town of Jed-
burgh and the village of Lanton [which see], there
are two hamlets, — Bonjedward, at the intersection
of the Newcastle and Edinburgh, and the Berwick
and Carlisle roads, 2 miles below Jedburgh, — and
Ulsten, 1^ mile south-east of the former, and li mile
north-east of Jedburgh. The Berwick and Carlisle
road runs along the southern part of the parish, in
the vale of the Teviot, at a brief distance from the
river. The Edinburgh and Newcastle road, for a
mile after entering on the north, is identical with
the former, as it has to debouch round the north,