MELROSE, a town and parish in the county of Rox burgh. extending in length from north to south about se ven miles and in breadth from five to seven miles. The population is about 2446.
The soil Of this parish is various. Towards the south, it is for the most part a strong clay, excellently adapt ed for wheat. The bani..s of the Tweed, which winds through the parish, consist of a fine light dry soil, fit for all kinds of grain. On the north side of the river, the soil is of three kinds : 1st, A light earth, mixed with sand, upon a gravelly bottom ; 2d, A strong clay upon a till, full of springs, and very wet; and 3d, Moss. The northern pal t of the parish is hilly, and makes excellent sheep pasture, interspersed with a few small fields under cultivation. The valued rent of the parish is 19,9851. 48. 6d. Scots.
The town of Melrose, which gives its name to this parish, was formerly a burgh of regality. It is plea santly situated at the bottom of the Eildon hills, on the north side, and on the edge of a fertile valley, upwards of a mile in length, intersected by the Tweed, which runs through it in a serpentine direction, and surround ed by hills of a considerable height. In this valley, besides Melrose, are the villages of Danieltoun, Dar nick, Bridge-end, Gattonside, Newstead, Eildon, New town, and Blainslie.
Melrose was long celebrated for its manufacture of linens ; but for several years past this trade has been very much upon the decline. The business of bleach ing linens is carried on to a considerable extent; and the woollen manufacture has, of late, been cultivated with success.
A little to the south of Melrose, are the three Eildon hills. The base of them may be in compass six or se ven miles ; the heighth of two of them to the north about a mile and a half. On the top of the north-east hill are plain vestiges of a Roman camp, well fortified with two fosses and mounds of earth more than a mile and a half in circuit, with a large plain near the top of the hill, on which may be seen the prxtorium, or the general's quarter, surrounded with many huts. The situation seems to have been skilfully selected, and it has all the properties of a well chosen camp, according to the rules of Vegetius. There is a large prospect
from it of all the country ; it has many springs of good water near it ; the sides of the hill have been covered with wood ; and the camp is so extensive, that neither man, beast, nor baggage, could be straitened for room. On the north side of the middle hill, there seems to have been a second camp, from which there is a large ditch for two miles to the west, reaching to another camp on the top of Caldshielhill. This camp has been strongly fortified with a double trench, and the circum vallation of it continued for a considerable way ; and, along with the camp called Castlestcad, it forms almost a triangle with the large camp in Eildon hills. The vestiges of two other large camps are also found in this neighbourhood ; the one on the head of the hill, on the side of which the village of Gattonside is founded, north of the Tweed, which is surrounded by a wall of stone about half a mile in compass ; the other about half a mile to the cast, on the top of the hill opposite to New stead, which seems to have been about three quarters of a mile in circumference, and is called the Chester Know, or En9//. The eastern Roman military road is visible in many quarters of this country, raised in some places considerably above the adjoining fields, and of a considerable breadth, with military stations on some parts of it.
But the most remarkable monument of antiquity to Lc found in this quarter, is the abbey of Melrose.. Va rious religious foundations, of different dates, appear to have existed at this place. The ancient monastery of Old Melrose, situated on a little peninsula formed by the windings of the Tweed, was probably founded about the end of the sixth century. The venerable Bede, who was born in 673, gives an account of its situation on the bank of the Tweed, and also of its abbots It was a famous nursery for learned and religious men, and pro bably continued until the other one, at the present Melrose, was founded by King David. The convent of Old Melrose was enclosed with a stone wall, reaching from the south corner to the west corner of the Tweed, where the r,eck of land is narrow ; and the foundation of the wall is still to be seen.