While maniac winter rages o'er

The hills, whence classic Yarrow flows, Rousing the turbid torrents roar,

Or sweeping wild a waste of snows.

The main river is the Tweed, (see PEEBLESSHIRE,) which flows through the northernmost of the three valleys for ten or twelve miles. This, although not the richest, is, to a traveller, the finest part of the country. The river itself, with its "crystal streams,”

often fringed with trees, is beautiful, and its lively

The

and murmuring current has a cheerful effect. hills rise more abruptly than elsewhere, and are ornamented with almost enough of natural wood, extending with little interruption along the skirts of the southern hills, while old hollys, hawthorns, and ashes, the hardy remains of a former race, are scattered among the rocks and shingle, along the steep decli

vities of those on the north. Besides, the picturesque ruins of the old baronial castle of Elibank, and four or five gentlemen's seats, each of different styles of beauty, greatly tend to soften the wildness of this mountainous valley. As one ascends the Tweed, below its junction with the Ettrick, by a sudden turn of some miles to the south, it seems to fall into, and be subsidiary to the valley of the lesser river; the Ettrick by its direction towards the southwest appearing to be a continuation of the strath of the Tweed.

The length of the Ettrick to its highest source is about 30 miles. For the first ten or twelve, the banks of the water are partially covered with natural wood, mixed with plantations, and now and then even scattered remains extend to the sides of the hills. This alternation of wood and pasture, and arable fields, with the town of Selkirk overhanging the river on the south, Bowhill, a fine seat of the Duke of Buccleugh's, on the slope of a mountain that divides it from the Yarrow on the north, one or two old towers, and the excellent cultivation of the haughs and lower grounds, give this part of the valley a character of varied beauty and richness. The valleys of most of the tributary rivers in Scotland, at their junction, are bounded by mountains that are dry, healthy, and comparatively barren; and such are those separating the Ettrick and the Yarrow, and between the latter and the Tweed. The middle and upper part of the valley of Ettrick is perhaps the most beautiful pastoral district in the kingdom. The hills are almost without exception of the finest deep-green mountain pasture, on which are spread thousands of sheep, and for many miles the valley opens into wide haughs of great fertility, where are seen many herds of fine cattle.

The head of the Yarrow is properly formed by several glens, and slopes, and cleughs, that open upon St. Mary's Loch and the Loch of the Lowes, and send their streams to supply its waters. The principal of these is called Meggat. It is a dark valley, having all the characters of a wild deep highland glen rising by numberless sources among the highest summits of the great range already mentioned. It flows into St. Mary's Loch through a tract of fine meadow land, the hills on each side of which are skirted with bushes and old natural wood: but it is altogether in Peeblesshire, the shore of the lake forming the boun

dary line for a little way. After leaving those beautiful pieces of water, Yarrow flows among hills and cultivated haughs, where there is little of the picturesque for eight or nine miles, yet it is similar to the Ettrick in its general character. It has more heath on the hills, and fewer haughs in the valley: but its hills are likewise green, and its haughs are fertile, and for several miles, it will yield to few waters* in Scotland in varied and romantic beauty, until it joins already mentioned, which is situated in view of both the Ettrick below the castle of Newark, and Bowhill waters. Through most of this part of its course it dashes through a rocky channel, while its banks and the sides of the surrounding hills are covered with

fine natural wood, and a magnificent extent of old pines and forest trees.

The water of Ale belongs to Roxburghshire, but it

draws its sources from a number of small lochs in the These lakes are mostly full of shell marl, and of great value, had they lain near the cultivated country. It may be mentioned as not a little curious, that they have all the Westmoreland appellation of mere or muir, as it is here pronounced, attached to their names: as Kingsmuir loch, Alemuir loch, Akermuir loch, Hellmuir loch, &c.

extensive muirs between the Ettrick and Borthwick.

Borthwick, in its upper course, belongs to both Selkirkshire and Teviotdale. It rises like the rest friesshire. Rankleburn rises contiguous to the Ale among green grassy hills, on the borders of Dumand the Borthwick, and has a claim to notice only because there is situated the farm that gives a title to the duke of Buccleugh, the proprietor of two-thirds of the county.

Gala runs for twenty miles through Mid-Lothian, and only bounds Selkirkshire for a few miles before it joins the Tweed. This part of its course is well wooded and beautiful, and as it runs through and drives the machinery of the village of Galashiels, it probably conduces more to the wealth and industry of the district than all the rest.

The lowest part of the county at the side of the Tweed, is nearly 300 feet above the sea. The county town, and Thirlestane castle, and St. Mary's loch, are all 560. The highest farm house on the Ettrick is more than 700, so, as may be expected, the climate of Selkirkshire is wet, boisterous, and stormy; and although protected on the west by a high range of mountains, yet the west and south-west winds rage with much violence, generally bringing rain to the greater part of the district. As most of the lesser rivers run towards the east and north-east, the cold winds from these points blow up the valleys with lit tle obstruction.

The following is the average of seven years, abstracted from a very accurate register of the weather kept at the farm house of Bowerhope, on the north side of St. Mary's loch. The height above the sea is, according to Ainslie, 560 feet. It is to be regretted that a register of the thermometer is not included. Along with the register is kept a memorandum of the first appearance and flowering of several of the deepest rooted plants, and the first appearance of frog spawn.

Mean 44° 05 35° 8 41° 55 53° 8 45° 25 Frosty mornings are prevalent even until the first of June, and it is only in rare seasons that the early varieties of apples and pears ripen properly. But in the valley of the Tweed, and the vicinity of Galashiels, which is lower and better sheltered, the temperature is greater; here there is less rain than its elevation and mountainous neighbourhood might seem to warrant, and of late years, when the summers have been warmer, plumbs, peaches, and even nectarines, have come to good flavour. However, there are reasons for thinking this may be attributed to the superior care and cultivation of modern times.

Around Selkirk and Galashiels, even the hills are subjected to the plough. Here wheat is raised even as a considerable part of the rotation; and such has been the improvement in the cultivation of the "golden grain," and so well is every process of its management now understood, that it has often been raised 60 lbs. per Winchester bushel, 700 feet above sea level. Mildew is of rare occurrence, and smut is considered a proof of carelessness, and is still more seldom to be seen.

In the upper valleys of Ettrick and Yarrow, tillage is confined to the haughs and low ground contiguous. Although the attention is chiefly devoted to sheep and cattle, yet as most of the farmers must keep a pair of horses to drive fuel, and secure their crops of hay, they find it profitable and more convenient to have between 20 and 30 acres in a rotation of turnips, barley,

1821 29.38 1825 29.31 1822 29.3 1826 29.88 1823 29.4 1827 29.42 1824 29.31 Mean 29.43

hay, and oats, which otherwise might perhaps be more economically kept in pasture, for which the moisture and lateness of the climate renders it better adapted. Yet in favourable seasons, more luxuriant crops are nowhere to be met with; and, indeed, throughout the county generally, agriculture is as well understood and practised as in any district of the kingdom.

A small stout breed of horses was common to Selkirkshire and Teviotdale in former times, some of which were capable of great action, and which, it may be regretted, have been superseded, during the last fifty years, by crossing with horses from Lanarkshire, and in consequence, those now used for the plough much resemble that breed, but not so weighty and powerful.

There is an excellent breed of cattle, but more fit "for feeding than for milk," it having been the custom for many years past to purchase the bulls from Northumberland, of a breed perhaps too fine for the wet climate, and exposed pastures. Dairy farming is not practised.

Between fifty and sixty years ago, the blackfaced sheep, with coarse wool, were general, excepting on a few of the lowest farms near the meeting of the rivers, and they were for some time totally changed for the Cheviot breed. In 1798, when Dr. Douglas wrote his excellent survey, the whole number of sheep in the county were about 118,000, of which 36,000 were then blackfaced. Ten years ago there were none. Of late, a few farmers have again had recourse to them, as the low price has rendered the wool (the original cause of their banishment) of less consequence; and on the most upland farms, they are now confessed to be a surer and more profitable stock. There are at present about 2500 of the original breed, and they are likely to be increased. In the meantime, great attention and skill is directed to the improvement of both kinds; and this has been stimulated and kept up principally through the benevolent and patriotic exertions of Lord Napier, who, at the end of the war, returning from sea, rebuilt the "mountain home" of his ancestors, and betook himself to sheep-farming, as a rational amusement. By his lordship's influence, a pastoral society was formed, which is very numerous, including many from the adjoining districts. It has a great annual meeting, and distributes premiums for the best cattle and horses, as well as sheep. It may now safely be averred, that in no district of Scotland is so much skill and care directed to sheep farming. Perhaps, in some respects, this has been carried too far. A great proportion, particularly of the western part of the county, consists of a deep soft

clay along the slopes of the hills, and forming the bottom of the narrow valleys. For almost one half the year, this kind of soil was formerly surcharged with water, and it was never in a dry state. A kind of rush called sprett, and a scirpus called pry, (juncus articulatus and scirpi, var. sp.) occupied the ground almost exclusively. These sloping bogs were carefully drained, and another kind of herbage took possession. But the pry is an evergreen, and the sprett begins to spring in the end of April; and so they were found when most wanted. Again, it was discovered that the moles with which the rich dry green pasture was overrun, and annually topdressed, became partial to the newly drained bogs, and tapped the dams, and let out the water. Mole-catchers were introduced from Lancashire; and in twenty years, a mole became as rare as a hedgehog. Some of the old people go the length of saying, that since the bogs were drained, and the moles destroyed, their farms have neither kept so many sheep, nor fed such fat lambs as formerly. Moreover, a vexatious disease has, within the same period, been gradually increasing,* ascribed by many to the above causes. But we have not room to be more minute, although the subject is both curious and interesting in many respects. † The transition series of rocks, and that of remarkable uniformity, prevails throughout the whole of Selkirkshire. It is entirely schistose, consisting of gray wacke and slate, with one interesting exception to be afterwards mentioned. The stratification is regular, on a great scale, running ftom S. W. to N. E. with various dips. At Newhouse Lynns, about seven miles above Selkirk, where the Ettrick has cut its way through the barrier of an ancient lake to the depth of a hundred feet, the thin strata of gray wacke and soft slate is bent to a curve of more than 220°. The same phenomenon is to be observed on the Yarrow below Newark, in the direction of the strata, and about four miles distant. Near the junction of both rivers, the gray wacke contains so much iron that it is of a brownish yellow for a thickness of 800 yards or more. The town of Selkirk is partly found ed on another variety, containing many veins of heavy spar. Mountainous masses of feldspar and feldspar-porphyry rest upon the schistose rocks near the junction of the formation. These masses reach nearly in one direction from St. Abb's Head to near Selkirk; but do not enter the county. Dirrington Laws and Colding Knolls in Berwickshire, and Eilden Hills and Whitelaw Kips, consist of this rock.§

A curious anomaly occurs in the N. W. of the county. Along the lofty range already mentioned that separates it from Peeblesshire, there run thick strata of beautiful porphyry of various shades of colour, from nearly blood-red to brownish yellow. It is observed first overlying the clay slate that has been

long wrought for sale at Grieston, a mile west from Traquair. The direction is through the centre of Windlestrælaw. The schistus and it continue overlying one another for a distance of nearly three miles across; the most southerly porphyry being near Hollylee. But what renders this more interesting, there is found alternating, with this porphyry thin strata of flinty slate, clear gray porphyry, gneis, and granite. Now stratified granite is mentioned by Professor Playfair, as having been discovered by Sir James Hall and himself in Fasnet Water in Lammermoor, and he mentions it as having been found likewise at Loch Ken in Galloway. There is therefore great probability that the granite and gneis of these three places are a continuation of the same strata, for the intermediate point is nearly in a line with the other two, and not far from the line of direction of the under and overlying slate and gray wacke. The flinty slate has been observed in glens connected with the head of the Yarrow in the requisite direction. Both the latter and the gray porphyry are of great hardness; the porphyry ringing like metal when struck on a large block, and taking a high polish, and the slate giving fire with steel. Sometimes the gray wacke runs into amygdaloid, and veins of black carbonaceous slate, intermixed with pyrites, occur in divers places. Pieces of insulated galena have been found in the course of the porphyretic strata near Traquair, and trials to find lead have been made repeatedly without success. A considerable quantity of ore of antimony was found in digging a well at Traquair manse. No limestone has yet been discovered, but in two or three places there are springs supersaturated with carbonate of lime, and generally in lines, indicating, that in their way to the surface they pass over considerable masses of calcareous rock.

Probably owing to the uniformity of the rocky structure, the botany of the district is likewise very uniform. Notwithstanding that the mountains rise to a considerable elevation, few alpine plants are found. The Rubus Chamemorus is plentiful in several places in the massy hollows between the higher summits, Sedum telhephium, Saxifraga stellaris and Oppositifolia, are met with near the limits of the country with Dumfriesshire. The more rare plants in the district are Circea alpina, in the shingle on S. E. verge of St. Mary's Loch, C. lutetiana, near Gleddes-weel on Tweedside; Trollius Europeus, and Cnicus heterophyllus, in a bushy cleugh falling into Douglas burn; Drosera rotoundifolia, in Deucher hope; Thalictrum alpinum, at Newhouse lynns; Sedum villosum, Douglas burn; Hydrocotyle vulgaris, below Oakwood; Melampyrum sylvaticum, in Newhouse-bank and on Glen heights.

The remains of the ancient natural woods, of which, including the bosky cleughs in the uplands,

there is not more than 600 or 700 acres in all, are made up of oak, ash, elm, (montanus,) birch, alder, hagberry, (P. padus) holly, sloethorn, hawthorn, hazle, mountain ash, aspin (rare) ivy, honeysuckle, and four or five species of roses, and a number of willows. Sometimes a solitary mountain ash has outlived its cotemporaries, and is found overshadowing a rocky cleugh, 1500, and in one solitary instance, even near 2000 feet above sea level. Travellers who attend to such matters have often been struck with the numbers of large and ancient hollies which remain along the steep and shingly faces of the hills on the north side of the Tweed, from Yair to Hollylee, with here and there a hawthorn, seemingly of equal duration, where a modern hedge of either could hardly be raised in a lifetime even with great trouble and expense. Since the draining of the bogs along the sides of the higher valleys, which were covered formerly with Juncus articulatus and carices, these plants have given place to Aira cespitosa and some Agrostida on the clay, and groves of tall Carduus Palustris on the mossy ground. The latter is a valuable acquisition to the sheep in late springs, when they scoop out the roots even an inch or two below the surface; but the former although an evergreen, they seem to refuse on such soils as this altogether, probably because it has got up with too rank luxuriance. As a remedy, some farmers have tried burning it in spring, some mowing in early summer for hay, and some have stopt the drains that they may rather have the Juncus and carices the former inhabitants.*

Little can now be said of the wild animals of Ettrick Forest. It is likely that in ancient times the Urus had been common, for skulls of that animal have frequently been found in the marl mosses along with those of the stag, and another extinct species of deer with palmated antlers, of a size which seem to indicate the bearers to have been as large as a blood horse. The wolf and the wild boar had been common, for several places bear their names to this day. Foxes in the memory of old people were very destructive, but now few of them even attack lambs. The wild cat is nearly if not altogether extinct.

Two species of mice have occasionally been met with, which as yet have been overlooked by scientific naturalists. One inhabits the tops of the highest mountains, is a little larger than the Mus sylvaticus. The fur has a silky softness and lustre, and as the animal is turned round it falls open by its weight in a shed along the body, being apparently attached to the skin by a filament of extraordinary fineness and elasticity. The other is of a size between this and the Mus aquaticus, has, like them, a short tail and ears; the tail tipped with white. It has very large strong grooved semicircular teeth, and inhabits the low grounds, but is extremely rare. Only three have been observed, one of which, when running, stopped

at times and stood upright with its fore paws over its eyes like a weasel or squirrel. It was known and distinguished by a mole catcher, who had sometimes, although rarely, caught it in his traps. Rabbits seem to have gradually ascended the rivers, and in the lower part of the county have increased so much as to have become a nuisance.

Birds, migratory and resident, are similar to those of the adjoining districts. The black grouse was not uncommon seventy or eighty years ago, but from some unknown cause left this part of the country, but were again introduced as well as pheasants by the late Duke of Buccleugh, both of which have become uncommonly numerous. Partridges and hares are plentiful, and red grouse or muirfowl remarkably so on the heathy grounds. The green and grey plover are likewise common, but not so the woodcock. The dotterel sometimes breeds on the higher mountains adjoining Peeblesshire. There is hardly such a variety of small birds as in the neighbouring counties. Salmon, grils, whitling, many subspecies of trout, lampreys, eels, pike, minows, barbels, sticklebacks, are found in the rivers, but far from so numerous as formerly: and pike, perch, eels, and some excellent varieties of trout inhabit the lochs.

In ancient times, the sheriffdom of Selkirk was known by the general name of The Forest, or sometimes Ettrick Forest, although in the oldest deeds relating to it, it appears to have been divided into Selkirk Forest, Ettrick Forest, and the Forest of Traquaire or Strathquaire, and is so designated by Robert I. when he made a grant of the lands to the famous Sir James Douglas. Upon the attainture of the family of Douglas in 1455, these forests were again annexed to the crown, in the immediate possession of which and of its tenants they remained until alienated by royal charter after the restoration. We find that upon the 24th May 1503, James IV. granted the forest of Ettrick and the town of Newark as dower to his queen Margaret of England. In 1529, we find from Leslie that James V. had 10,000 sheep "going in the Ettrick Forest, in keeping by Andrew Bell, who made the king so good count of them as they had gone in the bounds of Fife."

In consequence of the whole county being anciently the property of the king, or of the Abbey of Melrose, the proprietors hold their lands by charter from the crown. Two-thirds belong to the Duke of Buccleugh, the rest is divided among twenty-seven other freeholders. The valued rent is £80,307, 15s. 6d. Scottish money; and in 1812, the real rent was £41,160, 10s. sterling. The land rent was then divided among forty-four estates, nine of which were above £2000 Scots, twenty between £2000 and £500, and fifteen below £500. About two-fifths of the county is under entail.

The office of sheriff was hereditary in the ancient

VOL. XVII. PART I.

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