Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

TWEED
land Burn, Hawkshaw Burn, Fruid Water, Menzion Bum,
Talla Water, Westhope Burn, Hearthstane Burn, Pol-
mood Burn, Stanhope Burn, Drummelzier Burn, Manor
Water, Hundleshope Burn, and Kirk Burn. In the course
through Selkirk, Berwick, and Roxburgh, it receives
from the N Cadon Water, Gala Water, Allan Water,
Leader Water, and Eden Water ; and from the S Quair
Water, Ettrick Water (with the Yarrow), Bowden Burn,
and the Teviot (with Ale Water, Jed Water, Oxnam
Water, and Kale Water). After the river finally quits
Roxburghshire, from the Berwickshire side come the
Leet Water and the combined stream of the Blackadder
and the Whiteadder ; and on the English side the prin-
cipal stream is the Till. All along the course there are
a very large number of smaller streams. From the
influx of Biggar Water there is a continuous series of
railway lines to the mouth of the river at Tweedmouth,
sometimes on the one side of the stream and sometimes
on the other, but mostly, especially in the lower portion,
on the S bank. From near Biggar to Peebles the line is a
portion of the Caledonian system ; from Peebles to Max-
wellheugh near Kelso, different sections of the North
British system ; and from Maxwellheugh to Tweed-
mouth, a section of the North-Eastern, an English
company. A good line of road also follows the course
of the stream, generally at no great distance, all the
way from Berwick to the source at Tweedshaws, whence
it passes over the ridge into Dumfriesshire, and down
Annandale. There are very old bridges at Peebles and
Berwick, but till a comparatively recent period there,
was not a bridge anywhere between. Now there are
within this distance a private suspension-bridge at Kings-
meadow, a timber bridge near Innerleithen, a stone
bridge at Yair, a stone bridge and a railway viaduct
near the mouth of the Ettrick, a good stone bridge and
a railway viaduct near Darnick, a suspension-bridge for
foot-passengers near Melrose, a stone bridge and a rail-
way viaduct near the mouth of the Leader, a private
suspension-bridge near Dryburgh, an iron suspension-
bridge and a good stone bridge at the lower end of
Kelso, a stone bridge near Coldstream, a suspension-
bridge for carriage traffic near Tweedhill, and a very
large railway viaduct at Berwick.
Some of the head-streams of the Tweed, Annan, and
Clyde rise within f mile of one another ; and hence the
old rhyme that says —
' Annan, Tweed, and Clyde
Rise a' out o' ae hill side ; '
and the Tweed and Clyde flow in parallel courses, and
within about 7 miles of each other, till near Biggar they
finally take their separate ways E and W. They are
much on the same level, and it would not be a very
difficult matter to divert the upper Clyde waters into
the Tweed by the cutting of a very short channel ; and
even were good care not taken of the banks of the
Clyde, ft is possible that the river might perform the
work for itself. Tradition says that before Glasgow had
acquired commercial importance, a project was con-
ceived of actually making this cutting, in order so to
increase the volume of the Tweed as to make it navigable
for a considerable distance upwards from the mouth.
Farther down, near Dolphinton, a small stream divides
so as to send a portion of its waters to Medwin Water
and so to the Clyde; while the other portion passes
to Tarth Water, and so by Lyne Water to the Tweed.
At some parts of the river's own course there are reaches
where lakes of considerable size seem to have at one time
existed, and there are also traces of old courses, which
were occupied probably in pre-glacial times. One
well-marked example is above Neidpath Castle near
Peebles, where there is the basin of an old lake extend-
ing upwards from the narrow glen at Neidpath. It had
existed before the narrow neck of rock there was cut
through, and at this time the course of the river had
been first southward by the line of Manor Water to
Cademuir, and thence eastward through the narrow
hollow NW of Hundleshope, and then south-eastward
by the line of the lower part of Hundleshope Burn to the
458
TWEED
present course of the river nearWhitehaugh. Of the
1250 feet of fall along the course of the Tweed, from the
source to the sea, over 700 are accomplished in the 26
miles between Tweed's Well and Peebles ; and as only
500 remain to be distributed over the other 70 miles of
flow, there are, as might be expected, deep still pools
and long reaches of water, with hardly any perceptible
current, with rapids of no great length or steepness
coming between. In consequence of the gravel-beds at
these rapids, it is, however, navigable — and that for
craft of very small size — for only a short distance from
the mouth, there being sufficient depth of water at high
tide to float a vessel to New Water Ford, 6 miles above
Berwick ; while the tide flows 10 miles up, to about
Norham Castle.
Though otherwise of little commercial importance, the
Tweed and its tributaries afford the best salmon, grilse,
and sea-trout fishing in Scotland, ' and although it is
beyond a doubt that salmon were more numerous in its
waters some 50 or 60 years ago than now, a large stock
of fish generally find their way each season into the
respective casts, and excellent sport is the rule.' _ There
are no fewer than 316 named salmon casts, of which the
55 from the Inch 3 miles above Peebles to Kame-knowe-
end near Elibank are open to the public. The others
are preserved, but fishing may sometimes be had by
arrangement with the tenants. The excellence of the
spawning ground, both in the Tweed itself and in all its
tributaries, makes the river very prolific ; but to such
an extent did over-fishing prevail in the first half of
the present century, that between 1808 and 1856, the
number of fish captured in one year had fallen off
very considerably. Special Acts of Parliament were
obtained in 1857 and 1859 for the prohibition of fixed
nets for 9 miles along the coast on both sides of the
mouth, and the regulation of the fishing on the river
itself, and the result is that the number of salmon
captured yearly is in excess of the annual returns of the
beginning of the century. The upland districts are
now so well drained that in dry summers the river is
always low and angling poor, and of late years the
fungus, saprolegnia ferax, has made severe ravages among
the fish, and although a large amount of scientific
attention has been directed to the investigation of the
disease, all efforts to discover its cause or find a cure
have hitherto been in vain. The harm that is being
done may be estimated from the fact that in the years
1880, 1881, 1882, no fewer than 22,756 diseased salmon,
grilse, and sea-trout were removed from the river. The
rental is about £13,000 a year. The rod season extends
from 1 Feb. to 30 Nov. Trout-fishing is excellent all
along the river, which for this purpose is open to the
public from the source to the junction of Leader Water,
from Kelso to Carham, and nearly the whole way from
Wark to Tweedmouth. The fish vary from 3 pounds
downwards, but the majority of them are under one
pound.
All along the vale there are a number of towns and
thriving villages, of which the chief are Peebles, Inner-
leithen, Walkerburn, Galashiels, Darnick, Melrose,
Newton, Lessudden, Maxton, Rutherford, Roxburgh,
Kelso, Sprouston, Birgharn, and Coldstream ; and on
the English side Carham, Wark, Cornhill, and Norham :
while at the mouth are Berwick and Tweedmouth.
There are also a large number of old castles and modern
mansions, of which the chief are Oliver Castle, Tennis
or Thane's Castle, Dalwick House, Stobo Castle, Easter
Dalwick, Easter Haprew, Lyne, Neidpath Castle,
Rosetta, Venlaw House, Kerfield, Haystoun, Horsburgh
Tower, Kailzie House, Cardrona, Glenormiston, Grier-
ston Tower, Traquair, Elibank, Ashiesteel, Fernielee,
Sunderland Hall, Abbotsford, Pavilion, Darnick Tower,
Littledean Tower, Gattonside House, Allerly House,
Drygrange, Beniersyde, Merton House, Smailholm
Tower, Makerstoun House, Floors Castle, Hendersyde
Park, Ednam House, Pinnacle Hill, Lennel House,
Tillmouth Castle, Twisel Castle, Milnegraden, Ladykirk
House, Norham Castle, Swinton House, Tweedhill, and
Paxton House. Nor do these exhaust the old keeps—