resident. The total rental of the corporation s property is now about 10,800. Since the Municipal Reform Act, 1835, the borough has been governed by six aldermen and eighteen councillors; and in 1842 "the power of life and death " wr s removed from the Quarter Sessions to the Newcastle Assizes. The custom of specially men tioning Berwick-on-Tweed after Wales, though abandoned in Acts of Parliament, is still retained in certain proclama tions. The title of " county in itself " also helps to recall its ancient history. It is the seat of a Poor Law Union, and the rateable value of the borough (1875) is 53,195. Berwick has sent two members to the English parliament since the reign of Mary. The registered electors number 1285, of whom 368 may vote as freemen, about 200 being doubly qualified. Population in 1871, 8731, or, including the conjoined townships (Tweedmouth, 2809, and Spittal,
1742), 13,282.
Of the origin or early history of Berwick nothing is known. It probably sprung into importance during the long struggle between the Scots and Saxons for the possession of Lothian and the Merse. Egfrid, king of ISTorthumbria, seeking to extend his boundary be yond the Forth, was routed at Dunnichen, 685, and driven back to the Tweed. But it was not until the battle of Carhain, 101S, that the latter river was finally secured as the boundary, and Berwick obtained the frontier position to which it owes its fame. It seems rapidly to have grown in size, wealth, and influence. Its name occurs as a royal burgh in the reign of Alexander I., along with Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Stirling, and with them, from David I., it elected the tribunal which from their number was called the "Court of the Four Burghs." The castle of Berwick was one of the strongholds given up to Henry II. of England to be security for the homage due by William the Lion as the price of his liberty, but it was restored with the others by Richard Cceur-de-Lion in 1189. At Berwick took place several of the conferences held be tween Edward I. and the competitors for the Scottish crown, and his decision in favour of Baliol was given in the castle, Nov. 1292. Four years later Edward marched north to punish his rebellious vassal, and began his invasion by an attack upon the town which was at once the key of the kingdom and its commercial capital. The English king, familiar with the place, and infuriated by the repulse of his fleet in the river, led the land attack in person. Being very slightly fortified the town was speedily stormed, and no mercy was shown to the inhabitants. One memorable incident is recounted. A company of trading Flemings held out against the besiegers in their fortified building, the Red Hall, until it was set on fire. They were bound by their charter to defend it to the last extremity against the English, and they perished in the flames. Berwick never recovered commercially from the massacre and pillage of this terrible Good Friday. Its efforts again to rise were hindered by the ever-renewed Border warfare, and it gradually sunk to the rank of an ordinary market-town.
On Edward s return from his victorious march through Scotland, lie determined to make the town impregnable with stone walls, but before his commands could be accomplished it was recaptured by the Scots as a consequence of the English defeat at Stirling Bridge. On Edward s approach the following year, however, the Scots re tired, and during the remainder of his reign it continued in the hands of the English. Here, in 1305, one quarter of Wallace s body was exposed, and shortly afterwards the countess of Buchan was suspended in a cage from one of the castle towers, as a punish ment for courageously performing the privilege of her family by placing the crown on King Robert Bruce at Scone. Edward II. <pent the winter of 1310 at Berwick after an ineffectual invasion of Scotland. Here, too, on June 11, 1314, the great English army assembled which was defeated a fortnight later at Bannockburn. Jn 1318 the town, now well fortified, was captured by Bruce, through the help of one of the garrison ; a siege by Edward, which followed, rendered famous by the engines employed both in the river and land attacks, was not successful. It remained in the hands of the Scots till 1333, when it was besieged by Edward III., and the hope of relief by the Scottish army being disappointed by their defeat at Halidon Hill, about 2 miles from Berwick, the town and castle were immediately, according to agreement, delivered up to the English king. The next 130 years saw Berwick occasionally attacked by the Scots, and sometimes with success, but they held it only for short periods until 1461, when Henry VI., in gratitude for refuge after the battle of Towton, made it over to them. In 1482, during the disputes between James III. and his nobles, it surrendered to the English army, and was never retaken by the Scots. Henceforward it occupied in Scotland, in relation to Eng land, the position for long of Calais in France an important strong hold, the sole remnant of wide-spread conquest. This position explains the possession by Berwick, until the union of the crowns, of a civil and military establishment (with lord-chancellor, lovi]- chamberlain, Domesday Book, governors of town and castle, &e. / resembling that of a small kingdom. It was that appointed by Edward I. for all Scotland, and was ready to expand, as it had been compelled to contract its sphere, should more territory be again acquired north of the Tweed.
BERWICKSHIRE, a maritime county of Scotland, forming its S.E. extremity, bounded N.E. by the German Ocean, N. by Haddington, W. by Midlothian, S.W. by Roxburgh, S. by the Tweed, which separates it from Northumberland, and S.E. by the liberties of the town of Berwick. Its greatest length from E. to W. is 31^ miles ; its greatest breadth 19?; area about 464 square miles, or 297,161 acres. It is naturally divided into three districts, Lauderdale, or the valley of the Leader, in the W. ; Lammermuir, the upland district occupied by the hills of that name, in the N.; and the Merse (probably a corruption of "March or borderland), the largest district, occupying the S.E. of the county. The Lammermuirs are a range of round-backed hills, whose average height is about 1000 feet, while the highest summit, Sayrs Law, reaches 1753 feet. From these hills the Merse stretches to the S. and E., and is a comparatively level tract of country, traversed, however, from N.W. to S.E. by distinct parallel ridges. The coast line is lofty, rocky, and precipitous, broken by ravines, and not accessible, except at Eyemouth harbour, for small vessels, and at one or two other places for fishing-boats St Abb s Head, a peninsular promontory with a light house upon it, rises to nearly 300 feet. The Eye is the only river of the county which falls into the sea. The others the Leader, the Eden, the Leet, and the Whiteadder with its tributaries, the Blackadder and the Dye all flow into the Tweed. Of these the largest and most important is the Whiteadder, which has its source on the East-Lothian side of the Lammermuirs, and, following a sinuous course of 35 miles, falls into the Tweed within the " Bounds " of Berwick. The climate of Berwickshire is chiefly influenced by its maritime position. The winter is seldom severe in the lowland districts ; but spring is generally a trying season on account of the east winds, which often continue into summer. Drainage has remedied the former excessive humidity, and the climate is now excellent, in relation both to the health of the inhabitants and to the growth of vegetation.
Berwickshire, geologically, consists of Silurian rocks in the hilly region, Devonian or Old Red Sandstone in the south west, and carboniferous limestone in the Merse. Large masses of porphyritic and trap rock occasionally occur, of which St Abb s Head is an example. The sea-cliff to the north-west of the mouth of the Eye is formed of con glomerate or pudding-stone. There is an interesting and somewhat famous geological appearance at a point called Siccar, near Cockburnspath, where the sea has laid open very plainly the junction of the primary and secondary strata.
the same farm a great diversity may be found. Along the rivers is a deep rich loam, resting on gravel or clay, chiefly the former. The less valuable clay soil of the Merse has been much improved by the effective system of drainage which is everywhere carried out. The more sandy and gravelly soils are suitable for the turnip crops, which are a marked agricultural feature of the county. To these soils the landlords and tenants of Berwickshire have applied themselves with such intelligence, mutual good-will, liberality, and spirit, that the county now stands in the first rank in regard to agriculture. The farms are large, and are commonly held by a nineteen years lease. Nowhere is farming conducted more scientifically or with better success. According to the agricultural returns for 1874, the total
acreage under all kinds of crops, bare fallow, and grass,