Hawick

HAWICK, is a town of Scotland, in the county of Rox burgh, situated at the confluence of the rivers Tiviot and Slitrig, on the west road between London and Edinburgh. It is distant from Edinburgh 47 miles, from Carlisle 44, and from Berwick 42. The river Tiviot runs close by the town, and the Slitrig runs through it, dividing it into two nearly equal parts, which are connected together by two stone bridges, one of which bears evident marks of antiquity. In August 1767, the Slitrig suddenly rose to a great height, occasioned by a cloud bursting at its source, and in its course swept away fifteen dwelling-houses and a corn-mill. Hawick is a burgh of barony of very ancient origin. It is independent of the superior, and enjoys almost all the pri vileges of a royal burgh, except that of sending a repre sentative to parliament. The date of its original erection into a burgh of barony is not known, the records of the burgh having been destroyed, and the town itself repeated ly burnt, during the Border wars between the English and the Scots ; the last instance of which occurred in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1570, and is recorded by Stowe, in his Chronicles of England, who says—" The sea vonteenth of April, the Earle of Sussex, lientenant•gcnerall in the North, with the Lord Hunsdon, lord governor of Barwike, and warden of the east marches, and Master Wil liam Drewry, high marshal of Barwike, with all the garri son and power of the same, began a journey into Scotland, and the same night came to 1Varke, twelve miles from Barwike, and so the next morrow entered into Tividale ; and, marching in warlike order, they beet, (burnt) over threw, rased, and spoyletl all the castells, towers, and vil lages of their enemies,till they came to the castell of Mosse, standing in a strog marish beloging to the L. of Buckcluch, which likewise was rased, overthrowne, and blent, and so marched forward, and brent the whole countrey before them till they came to Crailing." After mentioning a great ma ny other places which they burnt, Stowe proceeds thus " The nineteenth, the armie divided into two partes, the one parte whereof passed the river of Tivite, and brent the cas te]] of Ferniherst, and all other castells and townes belong ing to the Lord of Ferniherst, Huntill, and Bedrell, and so passed to Mint, where both the armyes mette agayne, and so brent on bothe sides the river, till they came to a greate towne called Hawike, where they intended to have lodged ; but the Scottes had unthatched the houses, and brent the thatch in the streetes, and themselves Iledde with most parte of theyr goodes; but, by the industric of the English men, the timber was also burned with the thatch, saving one little house of stone of Drumlanricke's, wherein my lord lay that nighte." Drumlanricke's little house of stone is supposed to be that which is now the Tower Inn, belonging to his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, which has long been celebrated for the excellent accommodation afforded to travellers. The walls of the oldest part of this building are, in some places, no less than seven feet thick. It has been lately very considerably enlarged, and is now one of the most commodious inns in the south of Scotland. The oldest char ter of the town now extant, is a charter of confirmation granted by James Douglas of Drumlanrick, then baron of the barony of Hawick, in 1537, which declares the town to have been from of old a free burgh of baronie, and pro ceeds on the narrative, that " the charters and evidents of the said town and burgh, through the inroads of the Eng lish and thieves in the by past times of enmity and war, had been lost and destroyed ;" and this charter imposes on the grantees thereof the singular burden "of maintaining one I-amp or pot of burning oil before the great altar of the pa rish church of Hawick, in time of high mass and evening prayers, on all holidays throughout the year, in honour of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the souls of the barons of Hawick, founders of the said lamp, and their successors." This charter was confirmed by a royal char ter, granted by Queen Mary in 1545. The church is beau tifully situated on a circular eminence in the middle of the town, and the church-yard commands a fine prospect of the surrounding country. The town is well paved and lighted, and has a plentiful supply of excellent spring water, which is conveyed to the town in leaden pipes. It has a respect able town-house, in which the burgh and justice of peace courts are held. A new -line of road is just now making to the town from the west, which will form a fine approach, and already a very handsome new street is begun to be built along the sides of it. At the west end of the town there is an artificial mound of earth, of a conical form, of considerable height, called the Mote, which, according to tradition, was formerly used for holding courts of justice. The mail coach from London to Edinburgh, by Carlisle, passes through the town every day, and it is at present (1816) in contemplation to establish a mail coach between this place and Berwick. The town is governed by two bailies, who, with the advice of the town council, have the sole management of the revenues and affairs of the burgh.

The bailies are chosen annually, by a poll of the resident burgesses. The town council is composed of 15 standing councillors, so called from their continuing in office during fife, who are elected by the bailies and standing council : and of 14 trades councillors, or quarter-masters, who are chosen annually, two by each of the seven incorporated trades of the burgh. Its revenue, which consists chiefly of the rents of a large common belonging to the burgh, is about 4001. per annum. The poor of the town and parish are supported by a rate, one-third whereof is paid by the proprietors within the burgh, and two-thirds by the heritors and tenants of the landward part of the parish. Besides the established church, there are three places of religious wor ship in the town, viz. the Burgher, Antiburgher, and Re lief meeting houses. There is an excellent public library in the town, which was begun in 17ou. There was also lately established a subscription library, by the tradesmen of the place, and there are besides two or three circulating libraries. A branch of the British Linen Company Bank has been long established here, and a savings bank was in stituted in January 1815, in which there was deposited, dur ing the first year, 8701., by 183 different individuals. In 1776, a farming club was instituted in Hawick for the dis cussion of questions connected with agriculture. It is com posed of most of the respectable farmers, and several of the landed proprietors of the district. This club holds its meetings regularly on the first Thursday of every month. It is believed it was the first association of the kind esta blished in Scotland, and it has the merit of having originated many very important improvements connected with agri culture. There is here a weekly market on the Thurs day, and four annual fairs, which fall on the 17th May, 17th July, 21st September, and 8th November, besides a cattle tryst, at which considerable numbers of black cattle arc presented for sale in passing from Falkirk tryst to New castle and Carlisle fairs. In 1811, the population of the town amounted to 3036, and the town contained 349 inha bited houses. Since that time no census has been taken, hut the population and number of houses during the last five years has very considerably increased ; and at present, in 1816, (including the population of Damside in the ad joining parish of Wilton, which may be reckoned the su burbs of the town,) it is estimated to exceed 4000. There are in the town three skinneries, one tannery, and two brew eries ; and a very considerable trade is carried on in the manufacture of carpets, lambs wool stockings, Scots blan kets, thongs, and gloves. The manufacture of lambs wool stockings, in particular, from the of machi nery, has of late years made very rapid progress, and is still on the increase ; it was first begun in 1771. hi 1791, there were manufactured only 3505 pairs of lambs wool stock ings, and 594 pairs of cotton, thread, and worsted hose. The number of persons then employed in the trade was 14 men, and women, who were chiefly employed in spin ning the yarn. The yarn, however, is now all spun by ma chinery. There are at present employed for this purpose 7 carding mills, which all go by water, containing 44 en gines, or scribbling and carding machines, loo spinning jennies, and upwards of 500 stocking frames. The greatest part of the spinning jennies are at present wrought by the hand ; but jennies of a new construction, to go by water, have, within the last twelve months, been introduced with success into four of the carding mills. The quantity of wool annually spun into yarn is upwards of 12,000 stones, of 24 lbs. to the stone, three fifths of which are manufac tured into stockings, and the other two fifths sold in yarn to manufacturers in other parts of the country, for the pur pose of being made into stockings. The quantity of stockings annually made by the manufacturers in the town exceeds 328,000 pairs. The number of persons in the town and neighbourhood employed in the different branches of this manufacture, is about 1000. This place has been long celebrated for its extensive nurseries, carried on by Archi bald Dickson & Sons here, and at Hassendeanburn in the vicinity, where they were first begun in the year 1729. The nursery grounds in the occupation of these gentlemen now extend to upwards of 100 acres, cropped with all sorts of foreign and native forest and fruit trees, flowering shrubs, and evergreens, Sze. These nursery grounds are very or namental to the place, extending along the side of the turn pike road to the east and west of the town, for the distance of upwards of a mile and a half. In the cropping and clean ing season, they afford employment for not fewer than 90 men, women, and children ; but at other seasons men only are employed in them. A very extensive business in the seed line is also carried on by A. Dickson St Sons. The position of Hawick, as estimated from Captain Colby's ob servations on Wisphill, is North Lat. 55° 26', and West Long. 2° 47'.