Peebles and Selkirk are entirely
inland counties; but they are not so cut off from the sea as not to be
affected by the outer world and as not to affect it. No region on the face
of the earth, not even Greece excepted, has been more "besung" than the
Border Ballad district embraced in Selkirkshire. Burns says "Yarrow and
Tweed to monie a tune owre Scotland rings" and the poetry of the district
is without doubt its chief claim to distinction. The Tweed or woollen
industry has rendered these counties no less famous in the sphere of
commerce.
It is not necessary to assume that
spiritual and mental characteristics are entirely due to material causes.
If the people of the Forest and of the Uplands of Peebles and Selkirk were
brave and romantic it does not follow that it was the Forest and the
Uplands that made them so. It was probably an initial endowment of the
spirit of adventure and love of freedom that drove many of the early
inhabitants into these fastnesses where even the king as well as foreign
foes hesitated to intrude. But the natural conditions of the Forest had
undoubtedly a great influence on the thoughts, emotions and occupations of
its inhabitants—the conditions: (1) that the counties belong to the
Southern Uplands, a district noted for its suitability as a pastoral
region and for its picturesque beauty; (2) that they are included in the
district of the middle marches over which the tide of war ebbed and flowed
for centuries.
It was natural that a region in
which King James IV at one time had as many as 10,000 sheep and from which
much wool was exported to Flanders should have woollen factories as at
Galashiels, Selkirk and Peebles. But besides the sheep there were cattle
in the meadows, and beasts in the Forest, whence oak bark was obtained for
tanning. So that there was also leather in abundance and up to the end of
the eighteenth century Selkirk was more famous for its shoe-making than
Galashiels for its woollen manufacture.
Although the counties took more than
their share in the extension and improvement of agriculture in the
eighteenth century, yet owing to the hilly nature of the region and the
consequent thinness of the soil, the counties, except in the north-west of
Peeblesshire, have remained chiefly pastoral. The present outstanding
features of the district therefore are sheep-farming and woollen
manufactures. But at the time when planting became fashionable in
Scotland, in no part of the country did so much planting of timber take
place, as in the counties of Selkirk and Peebles. Indeed, previous to the
extension of railway lines into the counties it was considered that this
planting had been overdone. In the vicinity of the county towns and in
such districts as Bowhill, in Selkirkshire, and Cademuir Hill, in
Peeblesshire, a great change has been effected in the appearance of the
landscape by the planting of woods and forests, mainly pine. At the time
referred to numerous estates particularly in Peeblesshire were purchased
by wealthy merchants and professional men and vast sums of money expended
on laying out policies, on building,
draining and planting. One estate in particular, the property of the Earl
of Islay, afterwards the third Duke of Argyll, obtained its name, "The
Whim," in token of the excessive outlay in converting a
wild morass into a pleasure ground. From its romantic associations,
picturesque attractions, and its proximity to Glasgow and Edinburgh,
wealthy proprietors have helped to make Peeblesshire the county with the
highest valuation (12 . 5) per head of the
population in Scotland. Selkirkshire, however, has remained chiefly in the
hands of one or two of the great nobles—the Buccleuchs and the Napiers;
and consequently the ratio of its valuation (6 . 5) to its population has
not increased to the same extent.
