HAWICK, burgh of barony and police burgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland. Pop. (1931), 17,059. It is situated at the confluence of the Slitrig (which flows through the town) with the Teviot, io m. S.W. of Jedburgh by road and 5 2 4 m. S.E. of Edinburgh by the L.N.E.R. The only church of historical interest is that of St. Mary's, the third of the name, built in 2763. The first church, believed to have been founded by St. Cuthbert (d. 687), was succeeded by one dedicated in 1214, which was the scene of the seizure of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie in 1342 by Sir William Douglas. The Buccleuch memorial hall, commemorating the 5th duke of Buccleuch, contains a technical school and a museum. The Moat or Moot hill at the south end of the town is an earth mound 3o ft. high and 30o ft. in circumference, possibly the place where formerly the court of the manor met. The Baron's tower, founded in 1155 by the Lovels, lords of Branxholm and Hawick, and afterwards the residence of the Douglases of Drum laririg, is said to have been the only building that was not burned down during the raid of Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd earl of Sussex, in April 157o. Bridges across the Teviot connect Hawick with the suburb of Wilton, and St. Leonard's park and race-course are situated on the Common, 2 m. S.W. The town is governed by a provost, bailies and council. The leading industries are the manufacture of hosiery, yarn and tweeds. There are, besides, dye works, saw-mills, iron-foundries and nursery gardens. The markets for live stock are also important.
In 1537 Hawick received from Sir James Douglas of Drum lanrig a charter which was confirmed by the infant Queen Mary in 1545, and remained in force until 1861, when the corporation was reconstituted by act of parliament. Sir Robert Umfraville (d. 1436), governor of Berwick, burned the town about 1417. In 1514, the year after the battle of Flodden, in which Hawick burghers had suffered severely, a number of young men routed an English force at Hornshole on the Teviot 2 m. below the town. This event is celebrated every June in the ceremony of "Riding the Common"--in which a facsimile of the captured pennon is carried in procession to the accompaniment of a chorus "Teribus, ye Teri Odin," supposed to be an invocation to Thor and Odin— a survival of Northumbrian paganism. An equestrian statue was erected in 1914 to mark the quater-centenary of the victory.
Two m. S.W. of Hawick is the massive peel of Goldielands the "watch-tower of Branxholm," a typical Border stronghold. One mile beyond it, occupying a commanding site on the left hank of the Teviot, stands Branxholm castle, the Branksome hall of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, once owned by the Lovels, but since the middle of the 15th century the property of the Scotts of Buccleuch. It was destroyed in 1570 and was rebuilt the next year, the peel forming part of the modern mansion.