BERWICKSHIRE is a county of an irregular square form, bounded on the north by the German Ocean; on the south by the river Tweed, which separates it from the bishopric of Durham and part of the county of Northumberland; on the north by Haddingtonshire; and on the west by Roxburghshire, and part of Edinburgh-shire. Its length and breadth are variously stated, one authority making the greatest length little more than 31 miles, and its greatest breadth about 22 miles; another stating it to be 35 miles in length, and the breadth 22 miles, but this latter breadth will include the Liberties of the Township of Berwick-upon-Tweed. According to a very accurate estimate given to the Emigration Committee in 1827 by Mr William Couling, civil-engineer and surveyor, the county contained an area of 446 1/2 square miles, or 285,600 acres, of which were then cultivated 160,000 acres, uncultivated 100,000, and unprofitable 25,600. The sea-coast is about 17 1/2 miles in length, from the boundaries of the township of Berwick, near Marshal Meadows, to its junction with East-Lothian at Dunglass Bridge. In 1834 it contained 31 parishes, and parts of two shires ; population in 1831, 34,048 ; parliamentary constituency in 1838, 1167. County town, Greenlaw, 38 miles southeast of Edinburgh. Lauder is the only royal burgh; Eyemouth the only shipping port in the county, excepting Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is a jurisdiction within itself. The county of Berwick comprises the ancient districts of the Merse, Lauderdale, and Lammermuir, and the small tract called Berwick Bounds, which, though locally, is neither politically nor ecclesiastically within the county. The Merse is a large district of level ground, forming the northern bank of the Tweed, about twenty miles in length, and ten in breadth; the whole so fertile, well cultivated, inclosed, and adorned, that it has the appearance, when surveyed from the little eminences which it contains, of a vast garden. There are comparatively few seats, but its farm-houses in many cases resemble villas. Lammermuir is a pastoral and hilly region, equal in size and lying parallel to the Merse; and Lauderdale is a vale lying west of the other two districts transversely, and partakes of the characteristics of both. It is generally acknowledged that agriculture is carried to very great perfection in Berwickshire, particularly in the Merse; the leases of farms are almost universally for nineteen years. and the tenants are men of good capital. Many proprietors reside on their own estates, and their home farms are cultivated in the most approved manner, exciting a spirit of emulation among the tenantry. All kinds of crops are grown throughout the county; but there are no large dairies as in Ayrshire and other districts. A practice prevails, very beneficial to all parties, of letting small portions of grass-land to cottagers, mechanics, and tradesmen in villages, which enables them to keep a cow, and the rent for the grass is all their outlay. There is nothing remarkable in the Berwickshire breed of cattle. On the hills there is a coarse breed of black cattle, which fatten well in the richer pastures ; the short-horned oxen from Yorkshire and Durham are preferred for stall-feeding; the Holderness and Ayrshire cows for the dairy. The horses are generally of a middle size, muscular and active, but the breeding of these useful animals is not a regular branch of the rural economy of the county. There are several breeds of sheep, the most common of which are the Tweeddale, or black-faced. The prejudice against rearing pigs has disappeared. The principal mountains of Berwickshire occur in the Lammermuir range, and vary from 1500 to 1630 in height. The coast consists of bold rocky precipices of considerable height, almost inaccessible except at Eyemouth and Coldingham Bay, and a few other places where a sandy or gravel beach occurs near rocks, and is available for fishing-boats. There are no lakes in the county worthy of notice, and the only river, exclusive of the Tweed, are its tributaries, the Whiteadder and Blackadder, the Leet Water, the Leader or Lauder Water, and the Eye, which falls into the sea at Eyemouth; nevertheless the county is well watered by innumerable rivulets and burns. Berwickshire receives its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, at one time its principal town. Its antiquities, as was to be expected from its position as a Border county, and the scene of much predatory warfare, are numerous and interesting. In almost every parish are tumuli, cairns, ruined castles, and peels or towers, military stations, abbeys, priories, and religious houses. It appears from Ptolemy that at the time of the Roman Invasion it was inhabited, in common with Haddington and part of Roxburgh shires, by the Ottadini, and it was invaded and peopled by the Saxons about the middle of the fifth century. The county formed part of the kingdom of Northumberland until A.D. 1020, when it was ceded to Malcolm II. by the then Earl. It was afterwards the resort of several powerful Anglo-Saxon and Norman families, when it rose into importance, and for many centuries was the principal scene of strife between the English and the Scots. The Men of the Merse were formerly renowned for their discipline and valour, their loyalty, and their feudal attachments. When Charles I. paid his first visit to Scotland in 1633, his Majesty was met at Berwick by Lord Home with a train of 600 Merse gentlemen on horseback gallantly arrayed, and in more recent times its yeomanry and militia evinced that they had lost none of the ancient military spirit of their ancestors. Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of Scotland, circa 1841