Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

134
BERWICKSHIRE.
Perhaps, if we were to estimate in round numbers
the total extent of cultivated ground at 160,000
acres, the uncultivated at 100,000, and the unprofit-
able at 30,000 acres, we should not be greatly wide
of the truth.
The Merse is comparatively an extensive plain,
yet much diversified by frequent swells, and with
several hills of some elevation interspersed, as at
Lamberton, Dunse, and Home castle. hammer-
moor and Lauderdale are composed of an extensive
range of lofty, rounded, well-defined hills, dividing
this north-eastern portion of the vale of Tweed from
the expanded vale of Forth. These hills are mostly
flat, or at least very obtuse on their summits, and
not precipitous or rocky on their sides. They are
everywhere intersected by a number of narrow up-
land valleys or dells, through which the numerous
feeders or brooks which combine to form the Leader,
Whitadder, Blackadder, and Eye waters, wind to-
wards the lower vale. The summits, in many places,
extend into considerable flats or elevated table-lands,
which often slope gradually to the lower vales on
the south sides of the hills, the higher parts being
moor, but gradually declining into good land. The
north sides of the Lammermoor hills are more steep,
but, as belonging to the Lothians, require no par-
ticular mention here. This county possesses every
variety of soil, from the most stubborn clay to the
most barren sand or gravel, but none whatever of a
chalky or calcareous nature. Along the banks of
Tweed, Whitadder, and Blackadder there is an ex-
tensive tract of tine deep free loam, often upon a
gravel bottom, sometimes upon a bottom of till or
coarse retentive clay. In this lower vale lalid there
is likewise a large extent of stiff and rather coarse
clay soil, usually cut off from the immediate vicinity
of the rivers by the before-mentioned rich loam. A
third species of soil, of a free and dry sandy or
gravelly consistency, occupies most part of the re-
mainder of the Merse, the vale lands of hammer-
moor and Lauderdale, and the lower slopes of most
of the hills: this is denominated turnip soil, and is
usually incumbent upon a dry bottom of gravel or
sand. In every quarter of the county, — frequently
in the same farm, and sometimes in the same field, —
these three soils are intermixed in patches, or irre-
gular stripes, of greater or less extent, and all gra-
duate into each other, forming intermediate varieties.
Irr many situations, even of the most fertile parts of
the country, marshy places or bogs are found in the
hollows, into which the water of springs or small
rills are poured from the adjoining slopes. These
are overgrown with rushes or other marsh-plants,
and are inundated with water in rainy weather.
Some of these larger bogs are of great depth, and
seem anciently to have been lakes or ponds now
filled up with peat moss, owing to the long con-
tinued accumulation of decayed aquatic plants.
Others seem to have been anciently the sites of
woods, as the remains of trees are still found when
digging for peats in them. Some bogs have little or
no peat-moss in their composition ; and such, in
various instances, have been converted into sound
firm pasture, or good arable land, by judicious drain-
ing. Peat-mosses or turf-bogs are found in all the
hilly country, and in various patches through the
low lands. These are used, in various parts, as sup-
plies of fuel ; but the culture of peat has not yet
made its way into this county, so that it cannot
hitherto be reckoned one of the Berwickshire soils.
Dogden moss, near Pohvart, covers about 500 acres,
and is in some places 10 feet deep.
Several endeavours have been made to discover a
workable seam of coal in Berwickshire. In the
estate of Lamberton, contiguous to Berwick bounds,
at the south-east extremity of the county, a stratum
of coal has long been known, which crops out on
the sea-banks near the fishing-hamlet of Ross. Some
coal has also been found in the parishes of Mording-
t'on and Cockburnspath. An attempt was once made
to dig for copper ore, at Ordwell on the Whitadder;
but, either from want of produce in proportion to
expense, or want of skill in working, it has been long
abandoned. More recent attempts to work this min-
eral at St. Bathau's, and also near the old church of
Ellim, in Longformacus parish, have proved equally
abortive. No indications of lead, tin, antimony, or
any other metallic ore — copper and perhaps red iron-
ore excepted — are known to exist in this county.
Some slight trials were made many years ago of a
ferruginous clay-stone rock, on the estate of Ayton,
as an iron-stone or ore of iron ; but it was found too
poor in metal to defray the expense of transport to
Carron iron-works. In some inland parts of the
county there are a few veins of limestone ; but
hitherto, the county has been mainly dependent on
its neighbours for the two great articles of domestic
comfort and agricultural improvement, — coal and
lime. Coals are brought from the south side of the
Tweed to all the south and east parts of the county,
and from Mid-Lothian into Lauderdale. The north-
east corner is supplied from Dunbar harbour, whither
they are imported mostly from Fife. Lime follows
nearly the same roads; except that some of the
north and east parts of the county procure it from
kilns in the vale of East-Lothian. Both coals and
lime, especially the latter, are imported at Eye-
mouth. The coals come from the frith of Forth,
and from Newcastle and Sunderland. Lime is
brought from the river Wear, and from North
Sunderland, near Bambrough castle. Coke, or
charred pit coal, for brewers, maltsters, and corn
merchants, is likewise imported at Eyemouth from
Newcastle. In many parts of the county, shell
marl has been found in small quantities. Trap
whinstone, and amorphous basalt, interspersed with
irregularly stratified clay-stone, are almost universal.
In several places, rocks of breccia, or coarse pudding-
stone, are found. The most remarkable instance of
this is the rocky promontory which covers Eyemouth
bay, on the north-west, in which nodules of whin
and schist, of great variety of size, form, and colour,
are imbedded in a lapidified clay, somewhat like
steatite, of various colours, often greenish, generally
very hard and tough, but soapy to the touch. The
durability of this stone is thoroughly ascertained, as
the outer pier of Eyemouth harbour has been above
30 years exposed to the fury of the German ocean,
without the slightest apparent waste; and it is built
of this stone without cement of any kind. In many
places, large beds of silicious sandstone or freestone
occur in regular stratification. Some of these are of
a coarse open grain, and serve tolerably well for
filtering stones. Many of the quarries are of ex-
cellent quality ; and perhaps there does not exist a
finer specimen of that kind of stone than is exhibited
in the magnificent ruins of Melrose abbey, in the
county of Roxburgh, only about 2 miles from the
western borders of Berwickshire; in which exqui-
sitely rich and delicate carvings in high relief, which
have been many centuries exposed to the weather,
are still sharp and uninjured. From comparison of
grain and colour — the last a pale red or almost peach
bloom — there is every reason to suppose that beau-
tiful structure had been supplied with stone from
Dryburgh upon Tweed within this county. Along
the" shores of Lamberton estate, contiguous to Ber-
wick township, there are extensive strata of free
sandstone.*
• The Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, instituted lor tlie pur-