The surface of the county is finely diversified, and exhibits many scenes that are beautiful and romantic; while the historical and poetical associations connect ed with the course of its rivers, and their tributary streams, confer upon it, in the eye of the scholar and antiquary, peculiar charms. No county in the king dom perhaps is better watered, or enjoys more nu merous or beautiful streams and brooks. One or more of these meanders through almost every little vale. The Teviot receives in its course the Allan, the Slittrige, and the Rule, all of which rise on the con fines of Liddisdale. The Ale and Borthwick are the northern feeders of the Teviot. Both rise in Selkirk shire, and are in some places boundaries of the two counties. The Ale, after flowing upwards of twelve miles, falls into the Teviot amidst the romantic sce nery of Ancrum. The Borthwick, passing through a more pastoral country, discharges itself into the Teviot above Hawick. In its farther progress, the Teviot receives the Kale, the Oxnam, and the Jed._ Of these, the first and last issue from the border hills. The Jed, rushing along a rocky channel, through narrow and thickly wooded vales, and through some most picturesque scenery in the neighbourhood of Jedburgh, passes that county town, and, at the commencement of an extensive plain near Crailiug, empties itself into the Teviot. Bowmont is a pasto ral rivulet, which has its source in the south-east of this county, and after a rapid course of nine or ten miles, passes into England at an eastern extremity of the parish of Yetholm. The Hermitage, which runs in the south-eastern declivity of the ridge, whence Allan and Slittrige proceed in an opposite direction, tumbles over a bottom of rough stones, in the midst of green hills, whose base is generally skirted with copsewood. Passing southward, it loses itself in the Liddal, after embellishing the scenery of that detached portion of the county, called Liddisdale. The Liddal is a more placid stream, which issuing from a kind of morass, not improperly called Dead Water, comes through a district more marshy and level. After its junction with the Hermitage the Liddal is increased by some considerable brooks, and with a velocity which, in the course of time, has excavated beds for pools of an uncommon depth, descends southward through vallics capable of high cultivation, till it reaches as we formerly noticed, the southmost point of the county, dividing Cumberland from Dumfries shire, where, mingling with the river Esk, its waters are carried westward into the Solway Frith. In an in land county, whose lowest point is above twenty miles from the sea, the quantity of salmon is greater than might be expected, though of late years it has been much diminished, owing to the mode of fishing adopt ed within tide-mark.
The aspect of the county is finely variegated in re spect of surface and elevation. The land on the two sides of the Tweed, as that river advances toward Kelso, rises gradually toward the north, till the pros pect terminates with the range of the Lammermuir hills, extending from Berwickshire to the Lothians.
There are several springs in the county, more or less impregnated with iron and sulphur; one in parti cular of a sulphureous nature in the morass called Dead Water, at the source of the Liddal, to which in valids frequently repair. There is one of a somewhat petrifying quality in Liddisdale, and another in the parish of Roxburgh. Iron stones are frequently seen near the surface, and fragments of agate, jasper, and rock crystal, arc often found, particularly at Robert's Unite, towards the southern part of the parish of Hob kirk, near Liddisdale.
It appears from Dr. Douglas' agricultural survey, that between 1760 and 1770, coal was discovered on the hill called Carter Fell, in this county, near the border of Northumberland; but though, wrought for some time, it was abandoned as of little value. An other seam of better quality was subsequently found near the southern point of Liddisdale, from which lit tle benefit has been derived beyond that detached dis trict. Various attempts have been made to discover coal in different places of the county; but not one of them was conducted upon a scale adequate to the importance of the object. Last season a new seam of coal was dis covered on the Carter; in consequence of which a cart load, the first fruits of the mine, wasburned in triumph in the market-place of Jedburgh, .whose inhabitants, from their vicinity, are chiefly concerned in its suc cess: and some indeed of whom have an interest as proprietors. Many hands were employed during this Timmer, (1825,) in making roads from the site of the coal to the neighbouring turnpikes; and as there is good limestone in the vicinity, it would be an object of great agricultural importance to the district, that the exper iment should prosper. Meanwhile the inhabitants of the western parts of the county in general, bring their coal from the Lothians and Dumfries-shire; and those in the eastern parts of the county, principally from Northumberland and North Durham, at distances varying from perhaps sixteen to thirty miles and up ward. Under such circumstances of disadvantage, the high cultivation of the county may well be consid ered astonishing. Through the whole of Liddisdale limestone abounds; but, from the state of the roads, the difficulty of access, and the elevation of the ground, little is calcined for general sale. Great quantities of shell marl are found in the parishes adjoining Selkirk shire. Marl pits have also been found many years ago at Eckford, Ednam, and other places; and a few years ago marl, in large quantities, was found near the Ber ry Moss, in Kelso parish, during the operations con nected with draining that morass. More recently still, a large stratum of marl in Linton Loch, near More battle, has been made available for the use of the pub lic, and is now on sale. This is of great importance to farmers in the neighbourhood; as marl is found to be a manure admirably adapted for meliorating land, especially light soils; but the quantity required ren ders the carriage too expensive for distant use.
It has been said that strata of freestone run in a north-east direction, from the southern extremity of Liddisdale to the neighbourhood of Sprouston, where it is regularly quarried. This quarry has indeed been long highly valued, both for the beauty of the mate rials which it furnishes for building, and for the facil ity with which it is wrought. For the ornaments of public buildings, however, Eccles and Swinton quarries in Berwickshire are found to be more du rable, as also for pavements and similar works. Ar broath stone is preferred, though its distance and ex pense make it a luxury. There are also freestone quarries at Denholm and Pinnacle. Different sorts of whinstone are found every where on the surface, in the beds of rivers, and in inexhaustible quarries. To the eastward of the Jed, the hills are covered with a thick sward of rich grass, and some are bare and rug ged. Some of them, as the Eildon hills and Rubers law, rise beautifully from the plain, and most of them are verdant to their summits.