A woollen manufacture was established some time ago at Inverleithen, for coarse cloths. Felts for the paper mills are also manufactured on the North Esk, and a manufac ture of narrow cloths was set up at Peebles. Here also there are some stocking-looms, and some hands employed in weaving linens and cottons for Glasgow and Lanark. There is no other commerce than that for agricultural pro duce already noticed.
By the returns in 1821, the population amounted to, males 4963, females 5061, total 10,046.
We need not describe the roads, but shall here notice the wire bridge erected by Sir John Hay, below Peebles, being the first specimen of this structure set up in Scot land. It is made on the principle first adopted, namely, that of suspending a road-way from pillars by means of wires, and which has now been abandoned in favour of the much better Catenarian principle. Where it crosses the Tweed, the breadth of the river is 110 feet. The total length of the bridge is 135, and its breadth four ; the piers or columns of support rising 10 feet above the water. This bridge cost 160/., and was erected by Redpath, Brown and Company, of Edinburgh*. • The far larger part of this county consists of a coarse argillaceous schist, known to mineralogists by the name of grey-wacke, and commonly called whinstone in the coun try. This rock, which forms the boundary of the Lam mermuir hills, commences northward about Kingside, whence its boundary extends westward by Romanno and Stobo, till it passes out of the county : leaving all to the southward and eastward composed of it, or about two thirds of the whole.
The stratification of this rock is so irregular, that no rule can be laid down respecting it ; and it even becomes dif licult to distinguish its disposition in many cases. It must be considered the fundamental rock, as nothing lower in geological order is to be found. In point of quality it is exceedingly various ; and, to a mineralogist, often very interesting. It differs exceedingly in aspect and general composition from the rocks of the same denomination that occur in the northern parts of Scotland, although the structure is the same.
In its simplest state it is a fine clay slate, of a dark lead blue, fissile in many cases, so as to yield roofing slate. From this it passes into a fine grey-wacke slate, in an argillaceous base containing sand and mica. In a still coarser state, it contains quartz gravel, and thus far the compounded varieties are sufficiently simple. But it is often far more compounded than this, containing frag ments of former schists of the same kind, and of basalt, together with particles of limestone and other occasional substances. On the northern border it is very remarkable for containing a great variety of jasper in fragments. When these are highly coloured and intermixed with white quartz and other fragments, the conglomerates thus form ed are often very beautiful, as well as of extreme hardness ; being susceptible of a high polish, and forming very or namental specimens, fit even for snuff boxes and similar trinkets.
It is quarried in many places, under the name of whin stone, for building, but is often a faulty stone for this pur pose, on account of its slaty nature. In some places it is also quarried for roofing slate; and that which is wrought at Stobo is carried as far as Kelso and Edinburgh, and even into Lanarkshire.
Above this rock lies the old red sandstone, continuous with that of Dunbar ; but this is traced with great difficulty in a few places on the margin of the subjacent rock. Among others it is found westward at Broornielees, where it is quarried.
This sandstone is in some places followed by that lime stone which also appears near Edinburgh, and which lies beneath the coal series ; but it is not wrought any where, and has scarcely indeed been examined.
The remainder of the county, separated by the line for merly indicated, consists of sandstone, ostensibly of a whit ish and yellow colour, resembling that of Edinburgh, with which it is continuous. This is, in fact, part of the coal series of that district, and it contains, besides, alternately beds of limestone and shale, as is usual elsewhere. The limestone is wrought, together with the coal, in the pa rishes of Linton and Newlands ; but the coal working-s are not carried deeper than the natural drainage will permit. The produce is consumed chiefly in the county. It is thought that this bed of coal is a continuation of that which extends on both sides of the North Esk, as far as the sea at Musselburgh. We may add to this, that ironstone oc curs in this series, but not such as to pay the expence of carriage to any iron work.
Freestone quarries are wrought in this series, in the parishes of Linton and Newlands, and at Marfield on the North Esk.
Besides the limestone of this series, some slender ap pearances of primary limestone occur in thin beds among the grey-wacke. One of these, near Peebles, has been wrought out, and there are some also equally insignificant in two or three other places farther to the southward.
We have already mentioned ironstone. 'We have not found that any of the shell marl so common under peat has been discovered in the county ; but some alluvial marly strata from the decomposition of calcareous rocks, are found in that part of the country where the coal series lies.
There yet remains at Linton some remains of ancient mine-workings, known by the name of the Silver holes. The hill itself is called Leadlaw. This silver must have been obtained from lead ; and attempts were made 60 years ago to renew the mine, but without effect.
We may add, that agate pebbles, arising from the decom position of the trap rocks of the Pentland hills, are found in this same neighbourhood.
The ancient castles of this county, of which Needpath is the most conspicuous, require no particular notice. A Roman camp remains well marked at Linton, and another at Lyre ; and it is likely that this people occupied some other points in the county. In digging in the peat some years ago, there was found here, a kettle of Roman bronze, exactly resembling the iron pot common at present in our cottages, and about ten inches in height and diameter. A vessel of the same metal, resembling a coffee-pot with legs, was also dug up at Eshiells, on the estate of Sir John Hay. This specimen is eight inches high, and they are probably both Roman. Figures of them are given in the Edin. Phil. Journal for 1822, vol. vii. p. 55.