Haddingtonshire, though it has a number of streams, sufficient, perhaps, for the common purposes of its population, possesses no lakes ; no other river than the Tyne, and that is an inconsiderable one ; and enjoys no internal navigation, nor fresh water fishery. The Tyne, which springs from the moor of Middleton in Edinburghshire, enters this county on the west, near Ormiston ; and flowing nearly due east, passes Haddington, the county town, and falls into the sea beyond Tyningham, the seat of the Earl of Haddington, after receiving the Peffer from the north, and Coalstone and a few other rills from the south. Yet it has sometimes swelled to a great height, and occasioned much damage. In 1775, the whole suburb of Haddington called Nungate, and more than half the town, were laid under water.
This county is not less fortunate in its mineral productions than in its soil and climate. Coal, which has been wrought here since the beginning of the thirteenth century, is found in great abundance in the western parts of it, from the borders of Lam mermuir to the sea; particularly in the parishes of Tranent, Ormiston, Gladsmuir, and Pencaitland. Hardly any part the district is distant six miles from limestone ; several extensive parishes rest on a bed of this rock. Marl is also found in different parts ; though, since the use of lime became so ge neral, it is not raised to a great extent. Sandstone or freestone, which prevails very generally through out the county, is wrought, of an excellent quality, near Barra, and in Pencaitland and Tranent. On the west side of the harbour of Dunbar there is a remarkable promontory, resembling the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, composed of a red stone, ap parently a very hard sandstone. It runs out to the north about 100 yards, and is 20 yards wide, hav ing the sea on each side on the flow of the tide. The diameter of its columns is from one to two feet, and their length at low water 30, inclining a little to the south. Ironstone has been found in the pa rishes of Humble, Keith, Oldhamstocks, and Tra nent, and mineral springs at several places, some of which were once much resorted to, but are in little repute at present.
The county of Haddington was divided in 1811 into 183 estates; of which 28 were above L.2000 Scots of valuation, 52 above L. 500, and 133 below L. 500. The valuation of the whole is L.168,873, 10s. 8d. Scots ; of which L. 1305, 4s. 3d. belonged to corporations, and L. 56,257, 38. to estates held under entail. And in the same year, the real rent of the lands, as returned under the property-tax act, was L.180,654, 5s. 9d. Sterling ; and of the houses, L. 6780, 15s. 2d. Sterling. Thus the land rent of the whole county, the Lammermuir hills in cluded, was almost a guinea an acre. In 1800, among the proprietors were 10 noblemen ; the num ber of freeholders who vote in the election of a mem ber for the county was then 71, and has varied from 78 to 70. The nobility who have seats in the county are the Duke of Roxburgh, the Marquis of Tweed dale, the Earls of Haddington, Wemyss, Hopetoun, Lauderdale, and Dalhousie ; the Lords Sinclair, Blantyre, and Elibank. Several other proprietors have elegant mansions, which tend greatly to orna ment the districts in which they are situate.
The farms are not generally what in some other parts of Britain would be called large. Their average size may be from 300 to 500 English acres over the whole of the arable land, but smaller on the best soils, and larger, perhaps, on the inferior. On land of a medium quality, 300 acres is not considered a small farm. All the farms are held on leases, coin film* A* 19 of 21 years, which do not of en eft ten any Covenants that are not equitable and liberal ; except that here, as throughout the rest of Scotland, the tenant is seldom allowed to sublet his farm or ailsign his lease, or even bequeath it by testanvent,..
the heir-at-law succeeding to the farm as a matter of course, though not to the stock or crop upon it. This arrangement has often been complained of by both parties, though in few cases has it been set aside by mutual agreement. The landlord, on the one hand, would wish to oblige the tenant to leave to his heir-at-law a stock sufficient for the cul tivation of the farm ; and the tenant, on the other, desires that he should be left at liberty to dispose of his lease, and the capital he may have invested in the improvement of his farm, without any other con dition than that the possessor shall become bound to the landlord for the performance of all the obliga tions he had himself come under.
Agriculture is the chief employment of the people of this district, which has long been celebrated for yielding a greater produce and higher rents than perhaps any other tract of corn land of the same ex tent in any part of Britain ; while, at the same time, the farmer and the labourer, each in his own condi tion, have long maintained a high character for knowledge and industry ; the one enjoying the fair profits of his skill and capital, and the other the re ward of his useful services, in a degree of independ ence and comfort which is far from having been so general of late in other parts of the island. The principal object on the low grounds, in many situa tions almost the exclusive object, is the growing of corn ; the dryness of the climate is thought to be less favourable to grazing and cattle crops ; and, with the exception of the Lammermuir district, very little is kept in pasture for more than one or two years. The general rule by which the course of cropping is regulated is not to take two crops of corn successively, but to interpose peas or beans, with cultivated herbage, commonly rye-grass and clo ver, on the clays; and turnips, with the same sort of herbage, on dry loans and sandy soils. On strong clays, a clean fallow once in four, six, or eight years, is considered indispensable. In a six years' course on clays, a third of the land is under wheat, which is almost universally taken after the fallow, and also after the beans ; the order being fallow, wheat, herb age, oats, beans; and wheat. On Inferior clays a fallow is made every fourth year, and only a fourth of the land is usually under wheat. On the best dry kiwis wheat, in a few instances, may be taken every second year, in the order of turnips, wheat sown in winter and spring, herbage, and wheat. But this severe course, if it be in any case profitable for a number of years, can only be adopted in situations where more manure can be applied than is made from the produce of the farm itself. As there are no towns of any size in the county, and few or no considerable manufactories, an extra supply of ma nure could only be procured from the lime-works, If it were not that much of the coast land is plentifully supplied with sea. weed. This article, as well as lime, is therefore used to a great and most beneficial extent, and affords a degree of facility in the culti aiding Of corn, without deteiiosating the soil, which does not exalt in many other districts. On wen ma paged soils, though not of the first quality, the pro. duce may be about 80 bushels of wheat, 48 of oats, 40 of barley, 27 of beans, and from 11 to 2 tons of hay at one cutting the English acre.