This is entirely an agricultural or rural district, and has no manufactures worth mentioning, except that of paper ; for which there are three mills in the county. 13roomhouse paper-mill near Dunse having eight vats; Ayton paper-mill five ; and Chirnside or Allanbank paper-mill two. There is nothing which can be called commerce at the only seaport in the county, Eyemouth ; excepting that one corn mer chant exports coastwise from this place a good deal of the surplus grain produce of the county; and here likewise coals and lime are imported for the supply of the eastern inhabitants. Berwick still re mains the chief commercial harbour of export and import for the whole county. There are several fishing villages of small importance, the inhabitants of which are principally engaged in the white fishery, chiefly for the Edinburgh market. The salmon fishery of the Tweed belongs principally to the town ship of Berwick, and the opposite English shore of that river ; and the trade of salmon exclusively to the London market, sent fresh and packed in ice, centers entirely in that town.
In 1795, the rental of the county was estimated at R112,000. In 1800, at £118,000. In 1806, at R210,000. And in 1808 for the property tax of 1807, at R226;000. One striking instance of the progressive rise in the value of land is worth record ing. About sixty years ago, a farm of 300 English acres was sold for R950. Its progressive rents were in successive leases of nineteen years, several of which merged into new bargains before they expired : R37, W50, R100, X400, and R615. It was sold a few months ago for very near R20,000, though six or seven years of the last lease have to run ; and during the whole period of sixty years, the landlord has been at no expense whatever in ameliorations or improvements, neither does the farm possess any pc culiarly good soil, or any remarkable advantages, ex cept nearness to market.
In 1755, by the returns made to the celebrated Dr Webster, the population of the county was 21,94.6. In 179.1, as made up for the Statistical Account of Scotland, it was 30,875. And in 1S01, under the population act, the numbers were 30,529. The diminution, only 346, may be more than ac, counted for by the drain of men for the navy, army, and militia. Berwickshire contains of the whole extent of Scotland ; of the population, 4,- of the valued rent ; and pays of the real rent of the kingdom. In 1783, its whole taxes to the state and
the county rates were .R2.539. In 1801, eighteen years later, they were £ 18,•47. In 1807, L44,314.
This county firmed a portion of the Roman pro ; wince of Valentia, and was inhabited by the ancient British nation called Ottadini, and many hill forts of the former inhabitants are to be found on its nume rous eminences, interspersed with a few Roman camps. One singular remnant of antiquity, called Herrits dyke, may be traced in an oblique direction almost through the whole extent of the county, from a camp or hill fort, on Hareffaulds in Lauderdale, to the banks of the Whitadder near the Tweed, a'distance of twenty-three miles in a strait line ; which seems to have been intended as a defence against the sudden in cursions of the neighbouring barbarous tribes. Home castle and Fast-castle, present ruins of the only bor der fortresses of any importance. There was formerly a castle of considerable magnitude at Ayton, of which not a vestige remains ; and there have been numerous towers, peels, and smaller castles in various places, for the defence of the country in the long wars be tween England and Scotland, to which this county was much exposed from its border situation. On a Bat elevated rocky peninsula close to Eyemouth, still called the Fort, there are very distinct remains of a regular fortification of the more modern kind, form ing a crown-work across the gorge, which joins this peninsula to the main land. This was the work of a French engineer during the minority of the beautiful and unfortunate Mary ; but the jealousy of the more powerful English government insisted upon its imme diate demolition Besides Berwick, which does not now belong even to Scotland, the towns of this county are few and in considerable; Dunse, Coldstream, Greenlaw, Lauder, and Eyemouth, being all that are worth naming. For any particulars respecting them which deserve notice, see these articles in our work. The various parishes of the county will be found described in the Statistical Account of Scotland; and Agricultural Reports of Berwickshire have been published by Messrs Lowe, Bruce, Home, and Kerr. See like wise the Caledonia of Chalmers, more especially for the antiquities of the county. (x)