BORDER (Fr. bordure, edge, of Teutonic origin; ef. ADIG. borte, border), THE. A term employed in historical as well as popular phrase ology to signify the common frontier of England and Scotland. The Border shifted to and fro frequently in former times. At present the di viding boundary of the two countries consists of natural and imaginary outlines. It is custom ary to speak of Scotland as a country 'north of the Tweed'; but the Tweed is the boundary only for about 16 to 18 miles. At Carham Burn the line proceeds toward the Cheviot Moun tains, which form the boundary for about 25 miles; thence it strikes Kershope Water, a tributary of the Esk. That river is the boun dary for a number of miles, to a point above Longtown, where the line quits the Esk abruptly in a northerly direction, and, taking into England part of what was known as the 'Debatable Land' (q.v.), strikes on the small river Sark, which is the boundary to the Solway Firth, the great natural division on the west. Such, in general terms, is the entire boundary, extending from sea to sea for about 100 miles. The counties lying on the English side of the border are Northumberland and Cumberland; on the Scot tish side, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, and Dumfriesshi re.
From the Eleventh till the end of the Seven teenth Century. there was almost constant dis turbance on the Border. Ruthless wars on a great scale between English and Scots some times caused the most frightful devastation, and became the source of lasting ill-will on both sides. History abounds in events of this kind, and the feuds and forays of clans and families are commemorated in a series of ballads, im mortalized in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, by Sir Walter Scott.
In the present day there is nothing to dis tinguish the Border from other districts of the country. unless it be the prevalence of pictur esque ruins of old castles, which are generally rootless, hut whose walls, of vast thickness and strength, are still in a good state of preservation. The Border strongholds were of three kinds—reg ular fortresses, large baronial castles, and the lesser kinds of towers. For an account of these and other architectural remains on the Border. see Border Antiquities of England and Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott (2 vols., folio, illustrated with plates) ; also Billings's Baronial and Ec clesiastical Antiquities of Scotland (4 vols., 4to), illustrated with plates (Edinburgh and London. l848-52).
The great channels of communication across the Border are two railway routes, one by way of Berwick and the other by Carlisle. There are also good roads in various directions for those who wish to explore this extremely inter esting district. Besides the books already re ferred to, there are works of local note, among Which the most comprehensive are: Richardson, Romance of English and Scottish Border (New castle-on-Tyne, 1846) ; Jeffrey's History and An tiquities of Roxburghshirc, 3 vols. (London, 1857-64) ; Ridpath's Border History, l vol., 4to (London. 1776) : Veitch's History and Poetry of the Scottish Border (Glasgow, 1877) ; Craig Brown's History of Sclkirkshire (Edinburgh, 1886) ; Oliver's Upper Tcrietdale and the Scots of Buccleugh (Edinburgh, 1887).