Surface and Geology.— The greater part of Roxburgh is included in Teviotdale. The whole course of the Teviot, 40 miles in length, is included within the county. It rises in the ranges of greywacke hills which separate the county from Dumfriesshire and Selkirk, and runs north-eastwards, following the deposition of the greywacke rocks to the Tweed at Kelso, and dividing the county into two unequal parts. On the north a high range of land runs parallel with its banks and slopes to its margin. South-west between Dumfries and Cumberland the greywacke formation constitutes an almost continuous succession of eminences, through which the Liddel finds its way southwards. The highest summits of the greywacke ranges exceed 1800 feet. Although occasionally rocky and rugged, the hills are for the most part rounded in outline and clothed with grass to their summits. This Silurian formation occupies nearly the whole of the western half of the county, but along with the greywacke rocks is associated clay slate of a bluish colour, glimmering with minute scales of mica and frequently traversed by veins of calcareous spar. The formation is succeeded to the eastward by an extensive deposit of Old Red Sandstone, forming an irregular quadrangular area towards the centre of the county, emitting two irregular projections from its southern extremity, and interrupted towards the north by an intrusion of trap rocks. Owing to the sandstone formation the transverse valleys formed by various affluents of the Teviot present features of great interest. The action of the water has scooped deep channels in the rock, and thus formed picturesque narrow defiles, of which the high sandstone scaurs are a prominent characteristic, their dark red colour blending finely with the bright green woods and sparkling streams. The best example of this species of scenery is on the Jed near Jedburgh. From the left the Teviot receives the Borthwick and the Ale, both rising in Selkirkshire, and from the right the Allan, the Slitrig, the Rule, the Jed, the Oxnam, and the Kale, which rise in the high grounds towards the English border. As the Teviot approaches Hawick the county becomes more cultivated, although frequent irruptions of igneous rocks in the shape of isolated hills lend to it picturesqueness and variety. Towards the Tweed, where the lower division of the coal formation prevails, it expands into a fine champaign country, richly cultivated and finely wooded. The Tweed, which enters the county about two miles north of Selkirk, crosses its northern corner, eastwards by Abbotsford, Melrose, and Kelso to Coldstream. Its tributaries within the county are, besides the Teviot, the Gala, the Leader, and the Eden. One of the principal features of the Tweed district is the beautiful group of the Eildon Hills near Melrose, consisting of felspathic porphyry, the highest of the three peaks reaching 1385 feet. The extensive range of the Cheviots running along the Northumberland border is of similar formation. Within Roxburghshire they reach a height of over 2400 feet. The lochs are comparatively few, the principal being Yetholm or Primside Loch, and Hoselaw in Linton parish.

The principal minerals are calcareous spar and quartz. The spar is frequently of a red or rose character indicating the presence of hematite. In the greywacke strata fossils are very rare, but in the Old Red Sandstone fossil fishes of the genus Pterixhthys and Holoptychius are very numerous, and a great variety of plant impressions have been found, especially fucoids, but also vegetables of a higher origin, including distinct petrifactions of Galamites. Climate and AgrieUlture.— The mean annual temperature approximates to that of Scotland generally, but it is much warmer in the low and arable portions, where also the rainfall is much less than in the hilly regions. The soil varies much in different districts, being chiefly loam in the Iowand level tracts along the banks of the river, where it is also very fertile. In other parts a mixture of clay and gravel prevails, but there is also a considerable extent of mossy land. The hilly district is everywhere covered by a thick green pasturage admirably suited for sheep. Both in the pastoral and in the arable districts agriculture is in a very advanced condition. The chief attention is devoted to cattle and sheep rearing.

Of the total area of 428,464 acres, 184,196 were in crops in 1885, 48,506 being under corn crops, 28,385 green crops, 59,937 clover, 47,058 permanent pasture, and 310 fallow. Of the area under corn crops, 32,624 acres, or fully two-thirds, were occupied by oats, and 13,355 acres by barley. Tuniips and swedes were the principal green crons, occupying 25,143 acres, while potatoes occupied only 2118. Tue total number of horses was 4420, of which 3697 were used solely for purposes of agriculture; of cattle 17,831, of which 5154 were cows and heifers in milk or in calf; of sheep 502,721; and of pigs 4783. The valued rental in 1674 was £314,633 Scots, or £26,219 sterling, while that in 1883-84 was £420,403 including railways. According to the parliamentary return of lands and heritages, the total number of owners was 2455, of whom 1880 possessed less that one acre. The duke of Buccleuch possessed 104,461 acres, or nearly a fourth of the whole; the duke of Rox-burgho, 50,459; the countess of Home, 25,380; marquis of Lothian, 19,740; and Sir William F. Elliot of Stobs, 16,475.

Manufactures.— Though essentially an agricultural county, Roxburghshire possesses woollen manufactures of some importance, including tweeds, blankets, shawls, and hosiery, the principal seats being Hawick, Jedburgh, and Kelso.

Railways.— The county is intersected by one of the lines of railway from Edinburgh to London (the “Waverley” route), which passes Melrose and Hawick. At Riccarton a branch passes south-eastwards to Newcastle. The northern district is crossed by the border railway from St Boswells to Kelso, Coldstream, and Berwick, a branch passing south from near Kelso to Jedburgh.

Population. —⅛etween 1831 and 1881 the population increased from 43,663 to 53,442 (25,436 males, 28,006 females), but from 1861 to 1871 there was a decrease from 54,119 to 49,407. The town population numbered 24,273 in 1881, the village 6627, and the rural 22,542. Jedburgh (population 2432) is a royal burgh; it is also a police and parliamentary burgh, as is likewise Hawick (16,184); Kelso (46S7) is a police burgh. The most important villages are Melrose (1550), Newcastlcton (924), and Yetholm (746).

History and Antiqtiities.— Among the more important relics of the early inhabitants of the county are the so-called Druidical remains at Tinnishill between the j>arishes of Castleton and Canonbie, at Ninestaneriggnear HermitageCastle, and at Plenderleath between the Oxnam and the Kale. Of old forts there are two of great size on the summits of Caerby and Tinnishill in Liddesdale, and a number of smaller ones in different parts of the county. On the northwest of the Eildon Hills are two fossae or ramparts forming a circuit of more than a mile. On Caldshiels Hill there was another British fort, and between them a ditch with rampart of earth defending the country from the east. The famous Catrail, “partition of the fence,” the most important of the British remains in the kingdom, extended a distance of 45 miles from near Galashiels in Selkirkshire through Roxburgh to Peel Fell on the border. The Roman AVatling Street touched on Roxburgh at Broomhartlaw, whence passing along the mountains now forming the boundary of the county for a mile and a half, until it entered Scotland at Blackball, it turned northward by Bonjedward, Mount Teviot, Newton, Eildon, and Newstead to Channelkirk in the Lammermuirs. On its line there were important stations at Chewgreen in the Cheviots O. Ad Fines), Bonjedward (Gaxlanica), and Eildon Hill (? Trimontiitm). Another Roman road, called the Maidenway from Maiden Castle in AVestmoreland entered Roxburgh at Deadwater, and under the name of the AVheelcauseway traversed the north-east corner of Liddesdale into Teviotdale. From AVatling Street a branch called the Devil’s Causeway passed to the Tweed. After forming part of the kingdom of Northumberland for several centuries, Roxburgh was relinquished along with Lothian to the Scottish king about 1020 (see Lothian, vol. xv. p. 10). It is supposed to have been formed into a shire in the reign of David I., its ancient Countytown of Roxburgh forming, along with Edinburgh, Berwick, and Stirling, the court of the four burghs of Scotland, whose laws were collected by that king. Roxburgh Castle, between the Tweed and Teviot near Kelso, was a royal residence of the Saxon kings of Northumbria and afterwards of the Scottish monarchs. It was frequently taken by the English, and James II. was killed there by the bursting of a cannon. After this it remained in ruins till it was repaired by Protector Somerset, shortly after which it was demolished. Hermitage, in Liddesdale, the scene of Leyden’s ballad of Lord Sοιιlis, was probably built by Nicholas de Sules in the beginning of the 13th century. On the forfeiture of the Soulis family in 1320, it was granted by Robert the Bruce to Sir John Graham of Aber-corn, and passed by the marriage of his heiress Mary to her husband AVilliam Douglas, knight of Liddesdale, who starved Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie to death in it in 1342 in revenge for Ramsay’s appointment as sheriff of Roxburgh by David II. In 1492 Archibald Douglas, fifth earl of Angus, exchanged the Hermitage for Bothwell Castle, on the Clyde, with Patrick Hepburn, first earl of Bothwcll; and it was there that his descendant, the fourth earl, was visited in 1566 by Mary queen of Scots. The principal of the other old castles are Branxholm on the Teviot, long the residence of the Buccleuchs and the scene of Sir AValter Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel ; Cessford, on a ridge inclining towards the Kale, formerly of great strength, besieged in 1520 by Surrey, to whom itsurrendered; and Ferniehirst, the mansion of the Kers, on the Jed, occupying the site of a baronial fortress erected in 1410, and the scene of many a fray. The district was for a long time the scene of continual border conflicts, the leaders in which were the Armstrongs and other chiefs occupying the fortresses or peels, chiefly in Liddesdale, as at Gilknockie, Castleton, AVhitehaugh, Copshaw, Syde, Mangerton, Goranberry, Hartsgarth, and Newcastleton. Among many fine modern mansions mention may be made of Floors Castle, the seat of the duke of Roxburghe; Minto House, the seat of the earl of Minto; and Abbotsford, built by Sir Walter Scott. Few counties can boast of such important ecclesiastical remains as those of the abbeys of Melrose, Jedburgh, and Kelso. There are several ancient crosses in the county, the principal being those at Ancrum, Bowden, Maxton, and Melrose. Among numerous eminent men connected with Roxburgh mention may be made of Samuel Rutherfurd the theologian, JamesThomson, author of The Seasons, John Leyden the poet, and Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto.

See Jeffrey, Ηiιtοry of Roxburghshire, 4 vols., 1857-C4; Armstrong's History of LidJesdale, 1884.