BUNKLE-AND-PRESTON, a parish, in the county
of Berwick, 5 miles (N. N. E.) from Dunse; containing
about 650 inhabitants. The name of this place is derived
from the Celtic word boii, signifying the foot or
base, and kill, a cell or chapel; the word Preston, if of
Saxon origin, would signify Priest-town, or the town of
the priests, but some derive it fi-om the Gaelic term
Preas, a thicket, and tun, a town or farm. The manor
was formerly possessed by Sir Alexander de Bunkle or
Bonkle, by whom it was transferred in 128S to Sir John
Stewart, on his marriage with the only child of Sir
Alexander. The property passed from Sir John Stewart,
by an heiress, to a different branch of the Stewarts, one
of whom was created Earl of Angus and Lord de Bonkle;
and a granddaughter of this earl, by her marriage
with William, Earl of Douglas, carried the property to
the family of Douglas. The ancient castle of Bunkle, of
which a ruin only now remains, was the residence of the
Stewarts. The parish contains 9300 acres. Its surface,
in the southern division, is tolerably level, sloping gently
towards the south-east; the northern part is traversed
by the Lammermoor hills, the southern ridge of which,
called Bunkle Edge, is 700 feet above the sea, but not
more than half that altitude above its own base, showing
the site of the parish to be of considerable elevation.
The river Whitadder runs along the southern and western
boundary of the parish, and, from its width, its
beautiful meanderings, and picturesque valleys, forms
an interesting object; it abounds with salmon and trout,
and is frequently visited by the lovers of angling.
On the hills the soil is thin and poor, but in the lower
parts, especially in the vicinity of the Whitadder, a rich
fertile loam. The cultivated land comprehends 7280
acres, one-half of which is usually in tillage, and the
other half in pasture, and of the former, about two-thirds
produce white crops, and the rest potatoes and turnips.
Little wheat is raised, and only a sufTicient quantity of
hay for domestic use. About 1600 acres are moorland
or heath, and about 420 planted, chiefly with Scotch fir,
of recent growth. The rotation system of husbandry
here adopted consists of two or three years of pasture,
followed by three years of tillage; but the farmers give
their chief attention to the rearing of sheep, there being
on some farms no less than 1500 or 1600, principally of
the Leicester breed. Considerable improvements have
been made within the last half century, and nearly all
the waste laud capable of cultivation has been reclaimed.
The annual value of real property in the parish is £8833.
There are three distinct classes of rocks, the transition
series, the old red sandstone, and the new red sandstone.
On the Hoardwell estate, close by the river, is a coppermine,
the property of Lord Douglas, worked about sixty
or seventy years since by an English company, but
abandoned as unprofitable a few years afterwards: in
1825 it was again wrought, and again relinquished on
the same account. The eastern boundary of the parish
is skirted by the Dunse branch of the North-British
railway.
Ecclesiastically the parish is within the bounds of the
presbytery of Dunse, synod of Merse and Teviotdale;
patron. Lord Douglas: the stipend of the minister is
about £250, with a manse, and a glebe of the annual
value of £46. When the ancient parishes of Bunkle
and Preston were united, about the year 1714, public
worship was performed in each alternately, till at length,
both churches needing repair, that of Bunkle was chosen
as most suitable for the joint population; it is a neat
edifice, rebuilt in 1820, on the old site, and capable of accommodating
400 persons. There is a parochial school,
where the usual branches of education are taught, the
master receiving the maximum salary, with £26 fees, a
house, and garden. Dr. James Hutton, born at Edinburgh
in 1*26, and author of a Theory of the Earth,
resided in the parish, and greatly promoted agricultural
improvements in this part of the country; and Dr. John
Browne, the celebrated medical theorist, author of the
system called from him the Brunonian, was born here in
1735.