ECCLES, a parish, in the county of Berwick,
6 miles (W. by N.) from Coldstream; containing 1946
inhabitants. The name is derived from the classical
word signifying a church, supposed to have been applied
on account of the number of churches or chapels
at one time situated here. In this parish is the ancient
village of Birgham, celebrated for the meeting, in II S8,
between Hugh, Bishop of Durham, and William the
Lion, at the instance of Henry II. of England, for the
purpose of laying a tax upon the Scots towards the
support of the war in the Holy Land. At that place,
also, was convened, in March 1290, an august assembly
for the settlement of the intended marriage of Prince
Edward, son of Edward I., with Margaret of Scotland,
a union afterwards prevented by the death of the young
princess in one of the Orkneys. Another meeting was
held at Birgham in July 1290, at which the Bishop of
Durham and five others solemnly assented, in their
master's name, to every important regulation made by
the Scots for securing the independence of their kingdom.
The parish was anciently a seat of Bernardine or Cistercian
nuns, for whom a convent was founded by Cospatrick.
Earl of Dunbar; but the building has entirely
disappeared, with the exception of two vaults, now converted
into cellars for the mansion-house of one of the
landed proprietors. There is much obscurity in ancient
documents respecting the date of this reUgious house,
Hovedeu and the Melrose Chronicle representing it as
founded a second time by the earl in 1154, and Cowpar
fixing the event in 1155, while the Scoto-Chronicon
annexed to Fordun asserts it to have been established
by his countess. In 1296, during the interregnum in
Scotland, Ada de Eraser, the prioress, obtained a letter
of restitution, in consequence of the fealty sworn to
Edward I. by the Scots; and in the year 1333 Edward
III., after taking Berwick, received the homage of the
convent. It was visited in 1523, on the 13th of November,
by the Duke of Albany when retreating from Wark
Castle; he stayed till midnight, and then marched to
Lauder. In 1545, the abbey and town, with the tower
of Mersington, were destroyed by the Earl of Hertford
on his memorable inroad into !Merse and Teviotdale,
when he ravaged and burned the whole country without
opposition. In 1569, Marieta Hamilton, then prioress
of the establishment, granted the village and lands of
Eccles, by charter, to Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick,
and the charter was confirmed by Queen Mary
at Edinburgh, on the 11th of May in the same year. In
the 17th century the village was erected into a burgh of
barony in favour of George Home, Earl of Dunbar.
The PARISH is nearly seven miles long, and five and
a half broad, and contains 11,000 acres. With the
exception of the slight elevations of Cotchet Ridge,
Brae-Dunstan, Bartlehill, Hardacres, and Eccles Hill,
the surface is level throughout. It consists entirely of
cultivated land, well farmed and fenced, and studded
with numerous plantations. The climate, however, is
somewhat damp, and to a slight extent unhealthy, arising
from the prevalence of a rainy atmosphere. The scenery
is much enlivened by the course of the Tweed, which
runs on the southern boundary of the parish, and
separates Eccles from Northumberland; its banks rise
about fifty feet above the water, and harbour large
numbers of foxes, weasels, and rabbits. Near the river
the soil is in general light; in the middle and northern
parts of the parish clay and loam predominate, and in
the south-east quarter is a portion of moor. It produces
excellent crops of all kinds of grain, and turnips and
potatoes: the rotation here followed is the four or the
five years' shift, which are considered well suited to the
district. Sheep are kept on most of the larger farms,
consisting mainly of the Cheviot and Leicestershire
breeds, the former of which, on account of its being
more hardy, is preferred for the clayey lands. Rapid
advances have been made in agricultural improvement,
and the annual value of real property in the parish now
amounts to as large a sum as £19,441. The prevailing
rock is the red sandstone, which exists in a great variety
of forms and admixtures. At Birgham Haugh, magnesian
limestone, with red hornstone and crystals of
calcareous spar, is found; and on the southern bank of
the river, in addition to the above, are considerable
quantities of claystone porphyry. Near Kennetside
head, the large proportion of siliceous material gives
the sandstone almost the appearance of a quartz rock;
and in the marly sandstone on the banks of the small
river Leet are thin beds of gypsum. Among the houses
in the parish are Kames, Antonshill, Belchester, Stoneridge,
Purves Hall, and Eccles House, and in the plantations
of the last-mentioned are several fine old trees,
chiefly elm and ash. There are four villages, Eccles,
Leitholm, Birgham, and Hassington; Leitholm is the
largest, and has a bye- post to Coldstream. The London
and Edinburgh road, by Greenlaw, traverses the parish
from south-east to north-west; and that by Kelso, and
the road from Kelso to Berwick, also cross it.
For ECCLESI.4STICAL purposcs the parish is within
the bounds of the presbytery of Dunse, synod of Merse
and Teviotdale; patron, the Crown. The stipend of
the minister is about £250, and there is a manse, with
a glebe of twenty acres of good land. The first church
was dedicated to St. Cuthbert, but the next, built about
the year 1250, was in honour of St. Andrew. The present
church was erected in 1774, at an expense of £1000,
after the model of St. Cuthbert's chapel-of-ease at Edinburgh,
and is an elegant building seventy-eight feet long
and thirty-four feet broad, ornamented with a handsome
spire; it is situated about a mile from the western
boundary of the parish, and contains 1000 sittings.
There is a place of worship in connexion with the United
Presbyterian Synod. The parochial school affords instruction
in the classics, mathematics, and all the usual
branches of education; the salary of the master is £34,
with the fees, aud a house. A friendly society for the
relief of the sick and superannuated has been established.
The chief relic of antiquity is a monument of white
sandstone, in the form of a cross, without any inscription,
situated at Crosshall, about a mile northward of
the village of Eccles. The pedestal is a solid block of
stone, two feet and a half high, three feet square on its
upper surface, and raised a little above the ground; the
column is ten feet high, one foot and a half broad on
the east and west sides, and one foot on the north and
south, at the bottom. On the north face of the column
is sculptured a Calvary cross, surmounted by a shield;
and at the summit of the west side is a cross, with an
escutcheon below having chevrons in the dexter and
sinister chiefs and the base, and a St. John's cross: the
south side has an escutcheon like that on the west, and,
beneath, an ancient double-handed sword; the east has
a cross, and, below, the naked figure of a man, and a
greyhound. Many conjectures have been made respecting
the origin and design of this monument: the most
probable is that it was erected after the second crusade,
in 11 14, in honour of the father of Sir John De Soules,
lieutenant or viceroy to John Baliol. On Hardacres
Hill, about a mile to the west of the monument, are
traces of intrenchment. Eccles was the birthplace of
Henry Home, Lord Karnes, born in 1696; it was here
that he entertained Dr Franklin and his son in 1759,
and here he composed many of his works.