BERWICKSHIRE. This county is situated at the south-east extremity of Scotland, on the shore of the Getman or Bliti.li ocean, and adjoins the north east border of England, deriving its name from the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was formerly its head borough or county town ; but • which has been long annexed to the crown of England,• though still enjoying a species of anomalous jurisdiction in some measure separate from both kingdoms of Eng land and Scotland. Berwickshire is bounded on the east by the German Ocean, and a part of the mouth of the Firth of Forth. It bounds on the north with East Lothian, mostly along the range of hills called Lammermoor, having, however, one parish to the north-east of these hills situated on the extreme south eastern angle of the vale of Lothian. On the west, it joins partly with Mid-Lothian to the north, but principally with Roxburghshire. The southern boun dary k formed by the river Tweed, dividing it from Roxburghshire on the west, Northumberland in the middle, and North Durham on the east : but a por tion of Roxburgh in the neighbourhood of Kelso, and the township of Berwick, are both on the north side of this river.
Dunse, nearly in the centre of the shire, is its prin cipal town, and is in W. Long. 2°, N. Lat. 55° 49'. The most easterly in where this shire joins Ber wick township, is n W. Long. 1° 41', and the west ern extremity in W. Long. 2° 34'. The most south ern point on Tweed, is in N. Lat. 55° 36' 30", and the most northern in N. Lat. 55° 58' 30". The ex treme length is 311, and the extreme breadth statute miles ; and the entire superficies of the county extends to about 285,000 English acres, of which about 100,000 are arable, and 185,000 are composed of moors and hill pasture.
Anciently Berwickshire seems to have included a considerable portion of the lowlands of Roxburgh shire, as the old castle of Roxburgh or Rokesburghe, was formerly known by the name of March-mount, in reference to the ordinary term of the Merse or March, by which the lowlands of this county are still known. Lauderdale was formerly a separate regality, or high er and almost independent jurisdiction, under the name of a bailliary ' - and was a detached domain belonging to the powerful family of the lords of Galloway, which ended in the inglorious John Baliol, and his gallant but unfortunate kinsman, John the Red Cumyn, who was slain by Robert the Bruce. Lam mermoor is the north eastern hill districrof this coun ty ; having Lauderdale on the west, and the Merse on the south and south-west. Besides these large di.
visions, the county is divided into three presbyteries, Chirnside, Dunse, and Lauder ; and these are subdi vided into thirty-one parishes.
The mountainous districts of Lammermoor and Lauderdale are of considerable extent, in which the general range runs inland from the sea at St Ebb's Head nearly west ; but intersected by many narrow vales in various directions, chiefly tending towards the south, in which most of the streamlets flow ; though the rivers of the vale land principally run from west toward the east. From the main range of hills, va rious spurs jut out towards the south ; and there are several detached or isolated hills in different places of the vale of the Mcrae : And even that vale is much diversified by numerous swells and knoles, and wind ing deep dells, in \Odell last the streamlets of the lower country flow in search of the larger waters and rivers. The northern sides of the Lammermoor hills are. of considerable steepness, but belong to East. Lothian ; while the southern slopes are generally mo derate, and blend gradually into the lower vale. In many places the tops of the hills form extensive ele. vated table lands, which slope almost insensibly to wards the south into the lower vales. The higher land is usually miserably bare infertile moor ; while the slopes, called the moor edges; are mostly useful land, and sometimes of excellent quality. Two of the table lands are crossed by the principal great roads leading from Edinburgh to Berwick and Kelso; one at the Press inn, called Coldingham moor, once a royal forest ; the other at Blackshiels. But the oryctology, or features of the county, have hardly been attended to in any survey of the country, and cannot be satisfactorily described by any person who has not carefully travelled the country for the ex press purpose. Clint-hill, at the north-west extre mity of the Lammermoor chain, is said to be 1544 feet above the level of the sea. The general range may average about 1000 feet, declining as it approach es towards the sea and the east ; and the whole ter minates in three precipitous rocky promontories, at St Ebb's Head on the Louth, Earn's Cleugh in the middle, and Fast castle on the north. St Ebb's Head is detached from the extremity of the chain, by a deep narrow dry dell, almost level with high water mark at spring-tides.