Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

BERWICKSHIRE.
163
BERWICKSHIRE.
high as they can go, were counted as one boll; being
about 9 Winchester bushels, and supposed equal to
47ti English pounds. In Berwick township, the uni-
versal custom was to give 560 English pounds as a
boll of potatoes. The Berwickshire ton of potatoes
for the English market was 28 cwt. In Berwick
market, fresh butter was sold by a customary pound
of 18 avoirdupois ounces; while in the country mar-
kets, the tron pound of 22 J ounces was used, which
was also the usual pound for cheese, while that for
wool was 24 ounces. The legal firkin of 56 English
pounds was universally used for salt butter, but
usually a pound or two heavier to allow for brine,
Fresh salmon — a principal staple of Berwick, and a
considerable part of which comes from fishings with-
in this county — was sold to the coopers, or salmon-
dealers, by a customary stone of 18j avoirdupois
pounds. "The Berwickshire peck is J of a firlot,
instead of J.
Since the dismemberment of Berwick from Scot-
laud, Lauder remains the only royal burgh in the
county; and, in conjunction with Jedburgh, Had-
dington, Dunbar, and North Berwick, sends one re-
presentative to parliament. Greenlaw, a small
place 20 miles west of Berwick, in an inconvenient
situation, is the county town. But Dunse is at once
larger, more centrally situated, and in every respect
more important, and may be regarded as the first
town of the county ; yet even this would rank as a
trivial place in a manufacturing district. The only
sea-port is Eyemouth. The other towns and chief
villages are Coldstream, Ayton, Earlston, Chirnside,
Coldinghain, Paxton, Gavinton, Auchincraw, Res-
ton, Leitholm, Birgham, and Allanton.
The lands of Gordon and Huntly in Berwickshire
were the early residence of the great Gordon family
of the north of Scotland, and gave rise to respectively
their dukedom of Gordon and then - marquisate of
Huntly. A shooting-lodge and some pastoral lands
in the Lammermoors belong to the Duke of Rox-
burghe. Langton House, together with nearly aU
the parish of Langton, belongs to the Earl of
Breadalbane. The other chief seats in the county are
the Hirsel, the Earl of Home ; Thirlestaine Castle, the
Earl of Lauderdale; theRetreat,the Earl of Wemyss;
Nisbet House, Lord Sinclair ; Mertoun House, Lord
Polwarth ; YVedderlie, Lord Blantyre ; Dryburgh
Abbey, the Earl of Buchan ; Lennel House, the
Earl of Haddington ; Marchmont House, Sir Hugh
Hume Campbell, Bart. ; Newton-Don, Sir W. H.
Don, Bart.; Kenton, Sir Charles Stirling, Bart.;
Blackadder, Col. Sir George A. E. H. Boswell,
Bart.; Kelloe, George Buchan, Esq.; Paxton, W.
F, Home, Esq.; Ladykirk, David Robertson, Esq.;
Foulden, John Wilkie, Esq.; and Dunse Castle,
William Hay, Esq.
The principal roads in Berwickshire are the road
from Berwick to Edinburgh along the coast; the
north road from Berwick to Kelso through Swintcn
and Leitholm ; the road from Coldstream to Kelso
along the Tweed ; the road from Coldstream to
Haddington through Dunse; the road from Cold-
stream to Lauder through Greenlaw ; the road from
Eyemouth to Lauder, through Ayton, Chirnside,
Dunse, and Westruther; and the east road from
Kelso to Edinburgh, through Earlston and Lauder.
The total extent of roads within the county was
supposed to be 647 miles at the date of Mr. Black-
adder's report; and must be considerably greater
now. The North British railway passes along the
coast, and is of great value to all the seaboard dis-
trict. A branch deflects from it at Beston, in the
southern part of the parish of Coldingham, and goes
south-westward through the county to a junction at
St. Boswells. The Berwick and Kelso railway no-
where touches the county, yet keeps constantly near
it on the English side of the Tweed, and is of valuo
to various parts of the border district, particularly
around Coldstream. The Edinburgh and Hawick
railway also does not touch the county, yet comes
very near it at the point of bifurcation into the two
lines toward respectively Kelso and Hawick, and is
of value to the parishes of Mertoun and Neuthorn,
and to the lower part of Lauderdale. A project was
at one time in contemplation to cut a railway, under
the name of the Berwickshire and Lothians rail-
way, from Berwick, by way of Paxton, Hutton, Fo-
go, Greenlaw, the vale of the Leader, and Soutra Hill,
into junction with the Lothian railways, sending
off branches in the Merse to respectively the Union
Bridge, Dunse, Coldstream, and Kelso. Another
project, similar to this, but applying only to the
south - western and the western districts of the
county, proposed to cut a branch railway of 30 miles
in length, under the name of the Berwickshire
Central Junction railway, from Kelso, by way of
Nenthom, Earlston, and Lauder, into junction with
the Edinburgh and Hawick railway.
Berwickshire comprises 32 parochial charges, 4
ancient parishes in union with 4 of these charges,
the ancient parish of Home in union with the Rox-
burghshire parish of Stitchel, and two districts of
the mainly Haddingtonshire parish of Oldhamstocks.
Nineteen of the 32 parochial charges, or modern
parishes, may be considered as in the Merse, and 13
in Lammermoor. One belongs to the presbytery of
Dunbar, and synod of Lothian and Tweedale, and
31 belong to the synod of Merse and Teviotdale; 10
of these 31 constitute the presbytery of Dunse, 13
constitute the presbytery of Chirnside, and 8, to-
gether with 1 in Edinburghshire, constitute the
presbytery of Lauder. There is within the county
only one chapel of ease. The Free church of Scot-
land has 15 churches and 2 preaching-stations in
Berwickshire ; and it places one of the churches in
its presbytery of Haddington and Dunbar, 9 of the
churches and 1 of the preaching-stations in its pres-
bytery of Dunse and Chirnside, and the remaining
5 churches and 1 preaching-station in its presbytery
of Kelso and Lauder. The United Presbyterian
Synod has 17 churches in Berwickshire, — 2 of which
are in its presbytery of Kelso, 3 in its presbytery of
Melrose, and 12 in its presbytery of Berwick. The
only other places of worship within the county, so
far as we can discover, are a Reformed Presbyterian
church at Chirnside, au Episcopalian at Dunse, and
an Evangelical Union and a Baptist at Eyemouth.
Berwickshire, therefore, appears to be eminently
presbyterian.
The sheriff and commissary courts are held at
Greenlaw on the last Thursday of every month, and
at Dunse on every other Thursday, as well as every
Tuesday, during session. Sheriff small debt courts
are held at Greenlaw seven times, at Lauder three
times, at Ayton and Coldstream four times, at Dunse
nine times a-year. Quarter sessions are held at
Greenlaw. The assessment, in 1865, for police was
Id., and for rogue-money and prisons also Id. per
pound. The valued rent of the county in 1674 was
£178,366 Scots. The annual value of real property
as assessed in 1815 was £245,379; and in 1860 was
£311,132. Population in 1801, 30,206; in 1811,
30,893; in 1821, 33,385 ; in 1831, 34,043; in 1841,
34.438 ; in 1861, 37,634. Inhabited houses in 1861,
6,802; uninhabited, 429; building, 46. The num-
ber of families in 1831 was 7,385; of whom 2,921
were employed in agriculture, and 1,915 were em-
ployed in trade, handicraft, and manufactures. The
number of persons convicted for criminal offences
in the average of 1836-1860 was 52; in 1863, 47.