MERTOUN, a parish, in the county of Berwick,
45 miles (E. S. E.) from Melrose; containing 7'^2 inhabitants.
This parish is about six miles long and between
two and three broad, and comprises 7000 acres. It is
situated in the south-western extremity of the county,
and bounded on the south and west by the river Tweed,
on the north by Earlstoun parish, and on the east by
Smailholm and Makerstoun. The surface embraces several
fine slopes and undulations, especially in the western
quarter, where the scenery is very beautiful: the
prospect from Bemersyde hill, over which one of the
public roads passes, is striking and magnificent, comprising
wood and water, hills, and fertile fields. In the
south, also, the lands are diversified by good inclosures,
verdant hedge-rows, and flourishing plantations: the
venerable ruin of the abbey of Dryburgh, viewed from
the opposite side of the Tweed, whose banks are of red
earth and unusually steep, is a fine object in the scenery;
and a suspension-bridge here, a colossal statue of Sir
William Wallace on a neighbouring hill, and the Temple
of the Muses, a circular building erected by the Earl of
Buchan on an eminence near the end of the bridge, enliven
and beautify the district in a very interesting
manner. The windings of the Tweed add peculiar force
to the general impression of the scenery. There are
scarcely any springs in the parish, and the farmers are
occasionally much inconvenienced from a want of water
for their cattle.
The SOIL bordering on the Tweed is a sharp loam,
resting upon gravel; in the other parts of the parish,
with few exceptions, it is a stiff clay, having a cold tilly
subsoil. About .500 acres are occupied by wood, and
3460 are sown with wheat, oats, barley, and peas, of
which the barley is the most considerable in quantity;
turnips are also produced, and, since the introduction of
bone-dust manure, have been of very fine growth. There
is no common land; and it is supposed that of what is
in pasture .{00 acres might be cultivated with a profitable
application of capital. Improvements to some extent
have been made within the last few years, consisting
principally in draining and liming; but the surfacewater
is not so regularly and completely removed as
good husbandry requires, some of the farmers neglecting
to cleanse the ditches and to keep them in a fit state to
receive the drainage. The farm houses and offices are
generally convenient buildings; and a corn-mill upon an
extensive scale has been erected, the machinery of which
is of a superior kind, and suited to every description of
grain. In this parish the sheep are the best Leicesters;
the cattle are the short-horned breed, and great attention
is paid to their improvement by annual purchases from
the breeders in the south. The rocks on the banks of
the Tweed consist of freestone of a reddish colour, very
durable, and taking a fine polish; but although the
quality is so choice and the supply inexhaustible, no
quarry has been wrought for many years, owing to the
great expense necessary for this purpose. The annual
value of real property in Mertoun is £6429.
The chief mansions of this delightful parish are, Mertoun
House, an elegant residence near the church, the
seat of Lord Polwarth; Dryburgh House, the seat of
Sir David Erskine, a plain old mansion in the immediate
vicinity of the abbey, and having excellent orchards and
woods; and Bemersyde, an ancient but pleasant house
belonging to the Haig family, three-quarters of a mile to
the south of Old Melrose in the adjoining parish. There
are two small villages, Bemersyde and Dryburgh; but
the parish is not intersected by any turnpike-road. The
parish roads are for the most part good, and adapted for
local convenience. Over the Tweed is the suspensionbridge
already referred to, from which there is a direct
road to the village of Lessudden, south of the river,
where a post-office has been estabhshed; but this bridge
is only constructed for foot passengers and single horses,
and there is still a great want of a bridge for carriages in
the southern part of the parish. For ecclesiastical
purposes Mertoun is within the bounds of the presbytery
of Lauder and synod of Merse and Teviotdale; patron,
Hugh Scott, Esq., of Harden. The stipend of the minister
is £'252, with a manse, built in I767, and a glebe
of fourteen acres, valued at £14 per annum. The church
belonged to the canons of Dryburgh till the Reformation.
The present building was erected in 1658, and repaired
in 1820. It is pleasantly situated in the midst of a
grove, but stands inconveniently both for the minister
and the parishioners, being a mile distant from the
manse and about the same distance from the centre of
the parish. The edifice is in good repair and well fitted
up, with a pew assigned to every tenant. There is a parochial
school, in which the classics, the mathematics,
and the usual branches of education are taught; the
master has a salary of £30, with about £9 fees, and the
allowance of house and garden. The chief relic of antiquity
is the abbey; but the remains, though deeply
interesting, are not extensive. The nave of its church
is nearly demolished, nothing being left but the foundations
of the pillars; the most considerable part is the
north transept, attached to one of the ])illars that supported
the tower. The refectory has fallen down, and
the gable ends alone are now to be seen: in one of these
is a curious radiated window, almost enveloped and obscured
by ivy. The statue of Wallace, though not an
antiquity, is yet worthy of notice on account of its being
the workmanship of a common stone-mason who had
never learned sculpture. See Dryburgh.