Tweed, the noblest of Scottish rivers, rises far up in Peeblesshire at Tweed's Well, 1500 feet above sea-level, and flows 97 miles north-eastward, eastward, and again north-eastward, through or along the boundaries of Peeblesshire, Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire, Berwickshire, and Northumberland, till it falls into the German Ocean at Berwick-on-Tweed. It receives Gala Water, Ettrick Water (itself fed by Yarrow), the Leader, the Teviot, the Till, the Whitadder, and a number of lesser tributaries; is tidal for 10 miles, but almost quite unnavigable; and traces the English border for only 18½ miles, so that 'North of the Tweed' is a none too accurate phrase. It is famous for its salmon-fisheries, but more famous far for its memories: 'which of the world's streams,' asks George Borrow, 'can Tweed envy, with its beauty and renown?' For it flows by Neidpath, Peebles, Traquair, Ashiesteel, Abbotsford, Melrose, the Eildons, Bemersyde, Dryburgh, Kelso, Coldstream, and Norham Castle; nor are these a tithe of Tweedside's historic scenes. Merlin, Thomas of Ercildoune, and Michael Scott—the Tweed has dim legends of these; and its ripple was the last sound heard by a fourth and a mightier wizard than them all, Sir Walter.
See BORDERS; Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's Scottish Rivers (new ed. 1890); and Veitch's River Tweed (1884).