Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HAVEN. EAST AND WEST
winding 8J miles north-north-eastward till it falls into
Wick Water at a point 1J mile W of Wick town. In
the first 5 miles of its course it traverses Yarehouse and
Hempriggs Lochs ; and sometimes it bears the name of
Thrumster Burn.— Ord. Sur., shs. 110, 116, 1877-78.
Haven, East and West. See East and West Haven.
Haveton, a village in South Ronaldshay island,
Orkney, 13 miles S of Kirkwall.
Hawick, a parliamentary and municipal burgh, and
the largest seat of population in the eastern Border
counties, 53 miles SSE of Edinburgh, 45 NNE of
Carlisle, and 346 NNW of London. It is situated on
both sides of the Teviot, which enters the town from
the SW after passing through the haughs and woods of
Branxholm and Wilton Lodge, an approach of great
picturesqueness and beauty. The Teviot is joined in
the centre of the town by the Slitrig, a mountainous
stream, flowing through a district of romantic interest.
The town is in a basin, the principal streets being built
on the level land on both sides of the rivers, from which
other streets ascend the slopes, and above these are the
mansions and villas of the principal inhabitants over-
looking the town, and commanding extensive views of
the surrounding region. Several of these in size and
architecture rival the older mansions of the neighbour-
ing gentry. The district is rich in historic houses and
in more modern seats. Branxholm, one of the original
residences of the Buccleuch family ; Harden, of the
ancient Seotts ; Cavers, of the Douglasses of Liddesdale ;
Stobs Castle, of the Elliots ; Teviot Lodge, of the Lang-
lands ; and Stircb.es, of the Chisholms, are in the
vicinity. Sillerbithall, Heronhill, Thornwood, Buck-
lands, Brieryards, Teviotbank, Hassendeanburn, and
Linden-park are all large and elegant mansions. Nearly
all these seats are surrounded with extensive woods,
abounding in trees of great size. The town is regular
in form, and the streets are well built and spacious. A
great part of the old town has been rebuilt during the
last thirty years, and several streets have been added
of late, the houses all of freestone, tasteful and com-
modious. Several bridges span the Slitrig and Teviot.
Among the chief buildings are the Exchange Hall, the
banks, and some of the churches. A large and hand-
some town-hall is to be built on the present site in the
High Street, which, with corresponding offices and the
free library, will contain a public hall capable of seating
1500 people, and will cost about £10,000. A building
also is to be erected as a memorial to his Grace the Duke
of Buccleuch, who has long been the munificent bene-
factor of the burgh. Few evidences in buildings remain
of the antiquity of Hawick. The notable exception is
the building which for a century has been known as the
Tower Hotel. The older or western side is several
hundred years old, and formed part of the castle of the
Drumlanrig Douglasses, which escaped being burned in
the devastating inroad of the Earl of Sussex in 1570.
It was used as a residence a century afterwards by Anne
Scott, who was married to the Duke of Monmouth, and
was made Duchess of Buccleuch. While this house is one
evidence of the antiquity of the town, the Moat at a little
distance bears witness to the far-off antiquity of the town
and people. This is a circular earthen-mound, 30 feet
high, 312 in circumference at the base, and at the top
117. When and by whom this was erected is unknown.
It is purely artificial, and bears no trace of being a
sepulchral mound. It is upon an eminence which
commands a view of all the surrounding hills and
valleys, a capital station for watchers of apprehended
attacks, an excellent rendezvous for the defenders of
their homes, and an elevated station whence chiefs and
justices might dispense law. There can be no doubt
that the erection of this was far off in the centuries of
old, as also was that of the first parish church,
which dates from an unknown antiquity. No doubt,
here, as elsewhere, the Christian Church was the founder
of the civilisation. The previous races were savages,
until the Church reclaimed and elevated them. The
foundation of the Church in Hawick is like the Moat —
it goes back to an impenetrable distance. The first
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HAWICK
mention of it is in the Chronicle of Melrose, which
states that the Church of St Mary was consecrated in
1214, but there is no doubt that generations before this,
and from early Saxon times, Hawick was the seat of
Christian worship.
The municipal history of Hawick speaks to its anti-
quity. In the Scottish Rolls, under date 1347, it is
said to have been held from the Crown by Richard
Lovel and his ancestors 'for time immemorial.' Soon
afterwards the lands passed into the family of Sir
William Douglas of Drumlanrig, to whom James I.,
while resident in England, gave a charter conveying to
him the barony of Hawick and a territory embracing
a large part of the sheriffdom of Roxburgh. Nearly a
century afterwards, Sir James Douglas granted, in 1537,
a charter to the inhabitants of Hawick, which was
confirmed by the deed of Queen Mary of date 12 May
1545. At the period of granting the charter, the
town appears to have consisted of 110 houses, inclusive
of the manor house, church, and mill. The municipal
jurisdiction was entrusted to 2 bailies and 31 councillors.
The territorial sovereignty passed from the Douglasses
of Drumlanrig to the Seotts of Buccleuch. See Dal-
keith and Drumlanrig.
Hawick is abundantly supplied with pure water. The
former supply being inadequate, in 1866 a reservoir was
made on the Allan, 5 miles SW of Hawick, and an
amount of 400,000 gallons per day was brought in,
at a cost of £8000. As the town extended along the
slopes, it was found necessary to introduce a new supply
drawn from a much greater height, from the Dodburn,
and by these combined means 1,000,000 gallons are de-
livered in the town daily. The various works, with
the reservoir, a fine sheet of water of 20 acres — a hollow
among the hills — was constructed at a cost of £15,000.
The reservoir contains about 54,000,000 gallons. The
Allan and Dodburn being on the property of the Duke
of Buccleuch, and the surface for the most part through
which the pipes are carried, the Duke with his usual
generosity granted the free right of usage to the town.
These works were opened by his Grace on 1 Sept. 1882,
a memorable holiday in the town's annals, the principal
streets being ablaze with innumerable decorations, and
all classes vying with each other to do him homage.
An immense procession, with a great range of carriages,
accompanied his Grace to the reservoir, where he was
presented with an address from the Town Council
descriptive of the connection between the town and the
ducal house, and the numerous acts of benevolence
which had endeared him to the people. The proceed-
ings were followed by a splendid banquet given in his
honour, and attended by several hundreds, along with
noblemen and gentlemen from the surrounding district.
The town also is thoroughly drained on the most ap-
proved system, massive pipes having been laid in all the
streets and in connection with all the public works, by
which several hundred thousand gallons of sewage and
polluted water from the mills are conveyed to a haugh
on the W bank of the Teviot, 1 mile distant, where the
water, after being purified by lime, is collected in tanks,
and, separated from the solid matter, is discharged over
aerated beds into the river. These extensive works were
completed at a cost of £27,000. Hawick has also an
abundant supply of gas. The old works being in-
sufficient, new works were erected in 1SS2 near the
sewerage works at a cost of £10,000.
The first bank established in the town was a branch
of the British Linen Co. in 1797. The business
previously was mainly carried on by a private banker,
Mr Turnbull, a very shrewd, able, and upright man, who
bought the estate of Fenwick, etc., and built the man-
sion of Brieryards. The other branch banks are the
Commercial Bank (1820), the National Bank (1852), the
Royal Bank (1856), and the National Security Savings'
Bank (1815). Among the public buildings are the Town
Hall, the Exchange, the Temperance Hall, several
hotels, and the Museum. There is also a large Com-
bination Poorhouse. Hawick enjoys the benefit of a Free
Library. There are four weekly newspapers — the Hawick