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

750
HAWICK.
sand ; on rising grounds, between the valleys and
the hills, is loam, with occasionally a mixture of
gravel ; and on the hills is, in some places, light and
dry, — in some soft and spongy, — and in others wet
and stiff. Moss and heath occur only in small
patches. The valleys and their adjacent rising
grounds, though not thickly carpeted with soil, are
far from being unfertile, and the hills are every-
where an excellent sheep-walk. Rather more than
one-fourth of the whole area of the parish is in til-
lage; about 160 acres are under wood; and all the
rest, with due deductions for roads, and the sites of
the town and scattered buildings, is in pasture
One mile-and-a-half above Hawick, on the right
bank of the Teviot, stands the ancient tower of
Goldielands, one of the most entire on the border,
whose last laird, a Scott, is said to have been hanged
over its gate for the treasons and the maraudings of
a riever's career. The tower is square, and of mas-
sive and venerable aspect, and, foiled by the back-
ground of its site on the brow of an eminence, it
forms a feature in the landscape as picturesque as
it is conspicuous. — One-and-a-half-mile farther up,
on the opposite bank of the river, is Branxhohn-
house, wearing, at present, the appearance of a mo-
dern mansion, but preserving the remains of the an-
cient castle so celebrated as the principal scene of
' The Lay of the Last Minstrel.' In the reign of
James I., the castle became the property of Sir Wil-
liam Scott; and, during the 15th and the 16th
centuries, it was the residence of the family of
Buccleuch, and the scene of great baronial splen-
dour and festivity. But owing to the feudal power
of its barons, and the dangerous vicinity of the
foemen of the English border, it was often the ob-
ject of impetuous attack, and bold but sanguinary
defence. In 1532, it was fired by the Earl of North-
umberland ; and, in 1570, it was blown up with gun-
powder during the inroad of the Earl of Surrey.
Almost immediately after its destruction, however,
it was rebuilt, — the re-edification having been begun
in 1571 by Sir Walter Scott, and completed in
]574 by his widow. A venerable and magnificent
ash-tree rises on the lawn, with a girth of 13 feet
at 4| feet from the ground, and lifts its stem 16
feet aloft before shooting out into branches. [See
Branxholm] The Edinburgh and Carlisle mail-
road crosses the Teviot, and enters the parish at the
town of Hawick ; it then runs 2 miles along the right
bank of the river, and crosses to the left ; it now runs
4 miles along the left bank; and there, recrossing to
the opposite side, it leaves the parish, — though, for
2^ miles farther, it keeps close to the Teviot, and as
strictly commands its scenery, and offers its inhabi-
tants facility of communication, as before leaving it.
The road into England through Liddesdale diverges
from the former at Hawick, and runs along the valley
of the Slittrig, a third of the way on the right bank
of the stream, and two-thirds on the left till it
leaves the parish. A post-road from Hawick to
Kelso and Berwick follows the course of the Teviot ;
and, even after leaving the parish, keeps constantly
in its company till the confluence of the river with
the Tweed. In the lower part of the parish are two
other roads, one leading due south, the other due
east, and both diverging from the town of Hawick.
• — The projected inland railway line from Hexham,
on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway, to Edinburgh,
crosses the Teviot about 4 miles to the eastward of
the town of Hawick.— Population, in 1801, 2,798;
in 1831, 4,970. Houses 457. Assessed property, in
1815, £8,327.
Hawick is in the presbytery of Jedburgh, and
synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Patron, the Duke
of Buccleuch. Stipend £278 Is. 4d. ; glebe £62.
Unappropriated teinds £936 6s. 5d. The parish-
church was built in 1764. Sittings 704. An addi-
tional church, connected with the Establishment, has
been completed. Sittings 1,500. A district of the
parish, with a population of 216, is attached to the
preaching station at Caerlanrig, in the parish of Ca-
vers: See Cavers There are in the parish, but
all situated in the town, 5 dissenting places of wor-
ship. The First United Secession congregation was
established in 1763. The original church was built
in 1766; and the present one in 1823, at a cost of
upwards of £900. Sittings 639. Stipend £108,
with a manse. — The Second United Secession con-
gregation was established between the years 1775
and 1780. The place of worship was built in the
latter of these years. Sittings 752. Stipend £185;
but, while the charge is collegiate, the senior
minister has £85, and a manse, garden, and glebe,
valued at £25, and the junior minister has £100,
and a manse The Relief congregation was estab-
lished in 1810. The place of worship was built in
1811, and cost between £800 and £900. Sittings
750. Stipend £85. — The Independent congregation
was established in 1832, Their place of meeting is
a room built in 1836, and rented at about £5 10s.
Sittings 300. No stipend The society of Friends
was established about the year 1800. The place of
worship was built in 1822, at a cost of from £500 to
£510. The average attendance is only from 9 to
12. No stipend According to a survey made by
the' parish minister in February 1836, the popula-
tion then was 5,363. Of these 3,962 were church-
men, and 1,464 were dissenters The parochial
school is conducted by two teachers. Salary £33,
with school-fees, and £19 other emoluments. There
are 12 non-parochial schools, conducted by 7 male
and 5 female teachers, and attended, on the average,
by K42 boys and 310 girls. — The parish is probably
as ancient as the date of the Saxon settlement. The
church was, in 1214, dedicated to St. Mary, and,
previous to the Reformation, was a rectory. The
edifice, long after the Scottish canons had prohi-
bited such an abuse, was employed not only as a
place of worship, but as a court-house ; and it was
occupied for the discharge of county-business by the
sheriff, during the period of the English having pos-
session of the castle and town of Roxburgh. In
1342, while William Ramsay, one of the most gal-
lant men of the age, was here seated on the bench,
he was seized by William Douglass, the knight of
Liddesdale, to be carried off to Hermitage castle,
and there starved to death in solitary confinement.
Hawick, the capital of the parish just described,
and a burgh-of-regality, is situated at the confluence
of the Teviot and the Slittrig, 5 miles from Jed-
burgh, 20 from Kelso, 45 from Carlisle, 11 from
Selkirk : and 50 from Edinburgh, The Teviot ap-
proaches the town in a north-easterly direction,
makes a beautiful though small bend opposite the
upper part of it, and then resumes and pursues its
north-easterly course. Just after it has completed
the bend, the Slittrig comes down upon it from the
south at an angle of about 50 degrees ; but, opposite
the bend of the Teviot, is not far from being on a
parallel line.* The town adapts its topographical
arrangement almost entirely, and even very closely,
to the course of the streams and to the angle of their
confluence ; and maintains a delightfully picturesque
seat upon both, amidst a somewhat limited but mag-
nificent hill-locked landscape. The Slittrig ap-
* Eithpr the curving reach of the Teviot, or the crook made
hy the confluence with itoi the Slittrig, seems, in combination
with an adjacent house or hamlet, to have suggested the name
Hawick, — ha, or kaw, a mansion or village, and wic or wick,
the bend of a stream, or the crouk, or confluence of the rivers.