Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

611
BERWICK
placed at intervals, and a ditch, now dry, extends to the
river. Fronting the river are four-gun and six-gun
batteries defending the entrance to the harbour, and a
twenty-two-gun battery commanding the south side. These
ramparts, which are perforated by five gateways, are
Plan of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
generally in good repair, but since 1822 have been
destitute of guns save for volunteer practice. The circuit
is about 1 mile 3 furlongs ; that of the older walls was
more than 2 miles. The ruins of the latter, built by
Edward I., and also surrounded by a ditch, enclose the
suburbs of Castlegate, and the
Greens,—the fishermen’s quarter.
The Bell Tower, from which alarms
were given, and which is least dilapi¬
dated, has been recently secured
from further decay. Between the
extremity of these old walls and
the Tweed are the remains of the
old castle, which was allowed to
become a ruin after the union of the
crowns. There are no traces of the Arms of Berwick,
churches, monasteries, or other ancient buildings of the
town. The barracks, built in 1719, accommodate nearly
600 men; but they are now occupied only by militia, and
the governor’s-house has become a private dwelling.
The chief public buildings are the town-hall, finished in
1760, a stately building, surmounted by a spire 150 feet
high, which contains a peal of eight bells; the new jail,
erected in 1849 ; the corn exchange, which is the principal
public hall, opened in 1858; a new infirmary; two
assembly rooms ; Masonic and Good Templar halls. The
parish church is a plain Gothic building, without steeple,
of the time of Cromwell. It was thoroughly and taste¬
fully renovated in 1855. The patronage belongs to the
dean and chapter of Durham. A week-day lectureship
is in the patronage of the Mercers’ Company, London.
There are also in the borough, including Tweedmouth and
Spittal, three other churches connected with the Church of
England, three with the Church of Scotland, four United
Presbyterian, two English Presbyterian, two Methodist,
one Baptist, and one Boman Catholic. The only church
building worthy of notice is Wallace Green United Presby¬
terian Church, opened in 1859. New cemeteries were
opened at Berwick in 1855, and at Tweedmouth in 1858.
The town is well supplied with educational institutions;
and a local museum was established in 1867, where lectures
are delivered during the winter. The town and suburbs
have four public reading-rooms, and three newspapers are
published. Two bridges connect the town with the south
side of the Tweed. The older, which is very substantial,
was finished in 1634, having taken twenty-four years in
building. It has fifteen arches, and is 924 feet long, but
only 17 feet wide. The other, situated a quarter of a mile
up the river, is a magnificent railway viaduct, 126 feet high,
with twenty-eight arches, which extends from the railway
station—a castellated building on part of the site of the old
castle—to a considerable distance beyond the river. This
bridge was opened by Queen "Victoria in 1850.
The Tweed is navigable as far as the old bridge, and the
tide flows seven miles further. The entrance to the
harbour has been improved and protected by a stone pier,
built about sixty years ago, which stretches half a mile
S.E. from the north bank of the river’s mouth, and has at
the extremity a lighthouse with two fixed lights. The
depth of water at the bar is 17 feet at ordinary tides, 22 feet
at spring tides, but the channel is narrow, a large rocky
portion of the harbour on the north side being dry at low
water. A long-felt want is now being supplied by the
construction of a dock, which was begun at Tweedmouth,
September 1873. The number of vessels belonging to the
port (1875) is 25 (tonnage, 1459). There entered in 1873,
422 (tonnage, 35,049), and there cleared 424 (tonnage,
35,252). The principal exports are grain, meal, herrings,
burnt ore, metal castings, manures; the imports are bones
and bone-ash, manure stuffs, linseed, salt, timber, pig-
iron. The sea-fisheries employ 230 boats in white fishing,
294 in herring fishing, and 52 in both. Berwick, which
has long been famous for its salmon fisheries, is the head¬
quarters of the Fishing Company, which occupies most of
the stations on the neighbouring coast and for some miles
up the river. The fish are mostly sent to the London
market. There is an annual fair held here in the end of
May, and the weekly market on Saturday. There are four
banking establishments; and, on the whole, the trade of
the town is increasing.
The ancient charter of the borough of Berwick was
confirmed by various sovereigns from Edward I. to
James I., who added new officers and privileges, but
especially gifted to the burgesses all the lands within the
liberties which were not private property. These lands,
amounting to 3077 acres, or two-thirds of the whole, are partly
divided into farms, partly into meadows occupied or let by
the resident freemen and freemen’s widows. The annual
value of a meadow, seniority determining the allocation,
ranges at present from £11, 5s. to £2, 9s. 3d. The
roll of freemen contains about 1000, of whom 368 are