ROXBURGHSIIIRE. This county evidently de rives its name from the ancient city and castle of Rox burgh, which stood in the beautiful peninsula formed by the junction of the Tweed and Teviot, opposite to Kelso, but of which scarcely a vestige now remains. It is also sometimes called Teviotdale, as the river Teviot rises in its western extremity, and flows through the county in a north-easterly direction, till it unites with the Tweed at Kelso, which is within four miles of the eastern extremity. There is indeed a district in the county towards its southern point, called Lid disdale, from the stream Liddal, which runs through it from north to south. But, speaking in a general way, the name of Teviotdale is often given to the whole county. The parish of Castletown comprehends all Liddisdale, is about fifteen miles from north to south, and though it varies much in breadth, may be about twelve miles in its greatest extent from east to west. Roxburghshire is situated between 55° 7' and 55° 42' North Lat. and nearly between 2° 10' and 8' West Long. from London. Its form is very irregu lar, particularly towards the south and north extremi ties, which run so much into adjoining counties, as to render it a difficult matter distinctly to fix the limits of each. It is bounded on the north by the county of Berwick; on the east by Northumberland; on the south by Cumberland and Dumfries-shire; on the west by Dumfries-shire and Selkirkshire; and on the north west by Selkirkshire, and a small portion of Alid-Lo thian. It varies much in its dimensions. Its greatest length is about 41 miles, measuring from the junction of the Alare-burn with Liddal, to that of Carham-burn with Tweed; and its greatest breadth, by a line cross ing the above at right angles, is about thirty miles. The late Dr. Douglas of Galashiels, in his agricultu ral survey of this county, prepared in 1796, and pub lished in 1798, states its medium length at about thirty miles, and Its medium breadth a little more than twenty-two miles, making its contents nearly 672 square miles. and 430,080 square acres, of which about three-fifths were in sheep-pasture, and the re maining two-fifths were under the plough. except about 8000 acres occupied in woods, pleasure-grounds, towns, and \ ilia ges. Though some subsequent ac counts in gazetteers, &c. vary considerably in certain of these calculations, yet, as we well know the re markable accuracy of the Reverend Doctor, and that there has been no general agricultural survey of the county since that time, we think it safer, except in cases in which we have particular data of our own, to take him chiefly for our authority in matters like these, than to trust to the unauthenticated statements of anonymous publications, which are too often loosely and carelessly given. At the same time it is proper
to mention, that there has been a great extension of improved and cultivated, as well as of planted land in the county since that period, though we do not pre tend to be able to estimate its amount. The late Duke James of Roxburghe, who died at an advanced age in July, 1823, a few years previous to his decease planted a great part of the extensive and unsheltered waste called Caverton-Edge, in the parish of Eckford, and other lands in Roxburgh parish, &c. amounting in all to about 500 acres. He transferred Kelso races, which had long been held there, to the Berry-Al ass, which he transformed into a beautiful course, and on which he erected a very commodious and elegant race stand.
Roxburghshire contains twenty-nine complete pa rishes, and a part of four others, viz. Roberton, Ash kirk, Selkirk, and Galashiels. The river Tweed, issu ing from a mountain spring near the southern extre mity of Peebles-shire, and almost contiguous to the sources of the Clyde and Annan, enters the county at its confluence with the Gala, a little below Abbots ford, having formed its boundary with Selkirkshire from below Sunderland Hall. Passing Melrose at the base of the Eildon hills, and receiving the Leader at Drygrange bridge, it flows through the finely wooded scenery of old Melrose, Dryburgh Abbey, Merton, Alakerston, and Fleurs, where it reaches Kelso, to the beauty of the scenery of which place its conflu ence with the Teviot richly contributes. Thence it proceeds through a more level but richly cultivated district, and becomes in its progress the boundary between England and Scotland. The part of the Tweed within Roxburghshire is crossed by three stone bridges, viz. at Darnick, a mile above Melrose, at Drygrange, two miles below Melrose, and at Kel so;* also by two iron suspension bridges, one about 300 feet in span, now erecting (1825) between Mel rose and Gattonside, and the other at Dryburgh for foot passengers and single horses. The Teviot, which may be truly called a county river, rises many miles south of the Tweed, and taking a north-easterly course to Kelso, seems pretty nearly to divide the county into two equal parts. The division lying north of the Teviot contains the greater proportion of the arable land of the county, the south-eastern and the southern part of the other division being very mountainous.