CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES
DUMFRIESSHIRE
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
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CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES
SCOTLAND
General Editor : W. MURISON, M.A.
DUMFRIESSHIRE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
FETTER LANE, E.G.
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
100, PRINCES STREET
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
ILdpjtg: F. A. BROCKHAUS
#efo lorfe: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay atito Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LT»
All rights reserved
Ce
Cambridge County Geographies
DUMFRIESSHIRE
by
JAMES KING HEWISON, M.A., D.D.
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations
Cambridge: A
at the University Press
1912
Cambridge :
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CONTENTS
PAGE
1. County and Shire. The Origin of Dumfries . . i
2. General Characteristics 4
3. Size. Shape. Boundaries 7
4. Surface and General Features 1 1
5. Watershed. Rivers and Lakes . . . .14
6. Geology and Soil .24
7. Natural History .... -36
8. Round the Coast 47
9. Coastal Gains and Losses 54
10. Climate and Rainfall . . . . • -57
11. People — Race, Type, Language, Population . . 62
12. Agriculture .....••• 7°
13. Industries and Manufactures 75
14. Mines and Minerals . . . • • 7 8
15. Fisheries . . . . • • • • .81
1 6. Shipping and Trade . .... 85
17. History of the County 86
vi CONTENTS
PAGE
1 8. Antiquities — Prehistoric, Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon 95
19. Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical . . . .106
20. Architecture — (b) Castellated no
21. Architecture — (c] Municipal and Domestic . .119
22. Communications — Past and Present. Roads and
Railways 123
23. Administration and Divisions — Ancient and Modern 129
24. The Roll of Honour 135
25. The Chief Towns and Villages of Dumfriesshire . 153
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Castle Loch, Lochmaben ...... 5
The Devil's Beef Tub 9
Dalveen Pass 13
Mennock Pass . . . . . . . .17
Moffat: the Well Burn 19
Meeting of the Ewes and Esk, Langholm . . .22
Loch Skene . . . . . . . . .23
Grey Mare's Tail, Moffat 25
Sanquhar Coalfield . . . . . . . .31
Crichope Linn ........ 34
Drumlanrig Castle 37
Hoddom : " The kind beech-rows " .... 40
Loch wood Oaks . . . . . . . .41
The Whiskered Tern ....... 45
Solway Viaduct . . . . . . . .51
Clochmabenstane . . . . . . . .52
Craigenputtock : Carlyle's House ..... 64
Lockerbie from Mains Hill . . . . .68
Cattle Fair, Dumfries 74
Statuette of Brigantia, found at Birrens . . . .87
Caerlaverock Castle . . . . . . . .94
Altar of Minerva, found at Birrens . . . .98
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Torque and Bowl found at Lochar Moss . . . 101
Ruthwell Cross 102
Boatford Cross and Nith Bridge . . . . .104
Thornhill Cross . . . . . . . .105
Queensberry Monument, Durisdeer Church . . .108
Crichton Memorial Church, Dumfries . . . 110
Morton Castle 113
Bonshaw Tower 116
Johnie Armstrong's House — Hollows Tower . . .116
Hoddom Castle . . . . . . . .117
Stapleton Towers .118
The Mid Steeple and High Street, Dumfries . . .120
Annan Town Hall . . . . . . . .121
Castle Milk 122
Friars Carse, Dunscore . . . . . . .123
Old and New Bridges, Dumfries 127
Old Grammar School, Annan . . . . . .132
Town Hall, Lockerbie 134
Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B. . . . . . . 137
Robert Flint 139
Edward Irving . . . . . . . .142
Patrick Miller's Steamboat . . . . . .144
Joseph Thomson 146
Thomas Carlyle 148
Burns's Monument, Dumfries. . . . . .151
Jardine Hall 154
Dunscore Church . . . . . . . .156
Carlyle's Birthplace, Ecclefechan . . . . .158
Gretna Green . . . . . . . 159
Hoddom Church 160
Langholm Parish Church . . . . . .162
Moffat 165
Ren wick's Monument and Maxwelton Braes . .166
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
PAGE
Town Hall, Sanquhar . . ... . . .168
Morton School and Schoolhouse, Thornhill . . .170
Wanlockhead i?1
Diagrams . . -v,..v . . . . . .173
MAPS
Orographical Map of Dumfriesshire . . . Front Cower
Geological Map of Dumfriesshire .... Back Co<ver
Map of the Solway 48
Rainfall map of Scotland . . . . . -59
The illustrations on pp. 5, 9, 13, 17, 22, 25, 51, 52, 64, 68,
74, 108, 117, 118, 122, 123, 127, 132, 134, 151, 154, 162, 165,
1 68, 170, and 171 are from photographs by Messrs J. Valentine
& Sons; those on pp. 19, 35, 37, 40, 41, 94, 102, 104, 105,
no, 113, 116, 120, 121, 156, 158, 160, and 166 are from
photographs by the author; the portraits on pp. 137, 142, and
148 are from photographs by Messrs T. & R. Annan; the portrait
on p. 139 is from an etching by kind permission of Sir George
Reid; that on p. 146 is from a photograph by Mr John Fergus; the
illustration on p. 159 is from a photograph by Miss Montgomerie,
Dalmore ; the illustrations on pp. 87 and 98 are reproduced by
courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; that on p. 144
is from a block kindly lent by Messrs J. Maxwell & Son,
Dumfries; those on pp. 23 and 45 are reproduced from Mr Hugh
S. Gladstone's Birds of Dumfriesshire by kind permission of the
author, the former being from a photograph by Mr Legard ;
that on p. 31 is reproduced from Geikie's Scenery of Scotland by
permission of Messrs Macmillan & Co. The Map of the Solway
on p. 48 is reproduced by courtesy of Dr George Neilson.
i. County and Shire. The Origin of
Dumfries.
The creation of a county and the establishment of a
sheriffdom in Dumfriesshire were fraught with difficulties.
The ancient county of Dumfries included part of Gal-
loway as far west as the river Cree, in addition to the
present area which was constituted a sheriffdom in 1 748.
When in 1107 King Edgar bequeathed to his youngest
brother, Prince David, Scottish Cumbria, of which the
present shire of Dumfries was then a part, he granted
a very disputable possession. It was a little buffer-state
between two warring kingdoms. David, being both a
petty king and earl (comes), had the opportunity for imposing
upon his territory the feudal system, of the Anglo-Norman
type, to which he had been accustomed in England. To
his court he attracted Anglo-Norman and southern
chivalry to support him in his rule. His regal adminis-
tration was probably conducted by feudal dignitaries —
chancellor, constable, justiciar, chamberlain, steward, and
marshal. On David's accession to the throne of Scotland
in 1124, according to Gaelic custom and feudal law, his
personal property became an appanage of the crown.
H. D. I
2 DUMFRIESSHIRE
But at least one of the three great divisions of the border-
land, namely Strathnith, was still ruled by a Celtic
over-lord Dunegal; and, in like manner, probably Annan-
dale and Eskdale were governed by hereditary chiefs.
David found it impolitic at once to discard the old code
of law and customs, which, as in the case of Galloway,
prevailed in some measure for centuries. The eastern
boundary of Gaway or Galloway is not easily determined
now. Consequently the Celtic over-lord of Strathnith
(Nithsdale, and probably part of Galloway) was left
undisturbed. Annandale, however — a tract stretching to
the Forest of Selkirk — was granted to Robert de Brus,
while the constable, Morville, got Cunningham, and the
steward, FitzAlan, got Renfrew and part of Kyle. To
prevent jealousies among the local chiefs the Brus was
not created an earl. If Dunegal held the office of a
Maor (who corresponded to the Gerefa or sheriff of the
Saxons) on his own land, he might act as a vice-comes.
The early kings themselves, in their progresses with their
justiciars, presided over the courts of law. It is natural
to expect, therefore, that the castle-guard of the county
was connected with the territory governed by Dunegal.
The county (comitatus) for seven centuries has been
associated with the town of Dumfries — a place where
Dunegal and Radnulf his son held and disponed heritage
about the middle of the twelfth century. Radnulf 's
charter was given at "Dronfres," which in the Gaelic
tongue signifies "the ridge of the bushes" (phreas).
This corresponds with the persistent local pronunciation
"Drumfreesh." The next form of the word is Dunfres
COUNTY AND SHIRE
and Dunfrez (1183-8), a significant change after the
or fort of Dunegal, on the bushy ridge, became of para-
mount importance. This form of the word, "Dunfrys,"
appears in 1296, and "Drumfres" holds on in charters
after 1329. What in the way of establishing feudalism
David and Malcolm left undone William the Lyon com-
pleted. About the year 1186 he erected a strong castle
(castrum) at Dunfres to overawe the rebellious Galwegians.
In that military centre the officers of the king held their
courts, and received the service and fees of the knights
and barons of the district as well as customs due to the
Crown. Annandale was exempted from castle- ward.
Guarded by the castle, the new royal burgh of Dumfries
thus early rose, and from it the sheriff made the lieges
keep the king's peace. The boundaries of this sheriffdom
(vtce-comitatus) in course of time were curtailed. The
sheriff's jurisdiction, however, was not, in all matters,
commensurate with the boundaries of the county. Annan-
dale had the separate jurisdiction of a stewartry, Eskdale
that of a regality. Till the middle of the eighteenth
century, sheriffdom, stewartry, and regality were hereditary
in different noble families in succession. When the
Scotts of Buccleuch held the regality, they got their
Eskdale lands transferred to the sheriffdom of Roxburgh,
from which they were separated in 1748 and joined again
to Dumfries. The burgh of Dumfries was in the
fifteenth century excluded from the sheriff's jurisdiction
in respect of "actions of blood" — a privilege confirmed
to the town by James IV in 1509.
The county became adjusted to its modern conditions
1—2
4 DUMFRIESSHIRE
when parliament, by the " Heretable Jurisdictions " Act,
1747, abolished heritable jurisdictions. The Duke of
Queensberry, hereditary sheriff of Dumfries and coroner
of Nithsdale, received £6621. Ss. $d. in compensation for
his loss of offices; the Marquis of Annandale, £3000 for
the loss of the stewardship of Annandale, and the regality
of Moffat; and the Duke of Buccleuch ^1400 for the
regality of Eskdale.
2. General Characteristics.
In the southern uplands of Scotland, stretching between
sea and sea, where the two kingdoms meet in the Solway
Strath, and almost encompassed with an oval girdle of
green hills, lies the pastoral territory of Dumfries. The
picturesque aspect of the country made Fergusson, the
poet, declare that the gods "there ha'e shown their power
in fairy dream." Its characteristics are varied, no one
having a striking predominance, since the verdant land-
scape, from its maritime margin on the Solway Firth,
stretches evenly over holm and undulating ground, ridges
and little hills, up to a high transverse watershed, ranging in
height from Corsincone Hill (1547 feet) to White Coomb
(2695 feet) above sea-level. Nothing appears exaggerated,
and a fascinating harmony everywhere prevails, partly
created by landscape artists who have blended woodland
and tilled field to add beauty to hill, dale, and river.
Three great vales, parallel to each other, and having a
southerly trend — Nithsdale, Annandale and Eskdale — each
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 5
drained by a river from which it is named, give the shire
its chief natural distinction. In combination with these
are lesser dales — the greatest being the Vale of Cairn.
These again slope down on either side of the three great
water arteries, in two directions, south-west and south-east
respectively; and thus nature provides for moderating the
wind, rain, and fog, and for obtaining an even distribution
The Castle Loch, Lochmaben
of sunshine, heat, and moisture. The valleys, watered by
a hundred trouting-streams, which drain much arable and
pastoral land, form suitable tracts for the agriculturist
and sheep-farmer. In early autumn, when the harvest
crowns the year, the prospect from one of the great hills
is a vast panorama of green and gold cut with a streak of
silver river in each of the valleys below.
6 DUMFRIESSHIRE
On the uplands there are wide tracts of moorland and
hill pasture, lone, yet vocal with the bleat of sheep and
cry of wild birds. Lakes are little in evidence except
around Lochmaben — "Marjory o' the mony lochs, A
carlin auld and teuch," where formerly seven sheets of
water were clustered together. Worthy of note is an
extensive tract of peat moss and moor lying east of and
parallel to the river Nith, below the town of Dumfries.
Along its eastern margin the G. & S. W. Railway is built.
Known as Lochar Moss, it has the divisional names of
Craig's Moss, Racks Moss, Lochar Moss, Ironhirst Moss,
Holmhead Moss, and Longbridge Moor. In extent it is
six miles long and above two miles broad at the Wath
Burn. Recently extensive plant has been built on the
moss for the utilisation of the peat.
The maritime position of the shire is also of con-
siderable importance still, notwithstanding the greater
convenience of the railways for the carriage of imports
and exports. Nith and Annan are deep tidal rivers with
water to bring vessels of considerable tonnage to near
Dumfries and to Annan. Nature has provided an easy
outlet, by the rivers Nith and Annan and by the Solway
Firth, for the exportation of the local minerals, products,
manufactures, and netted fish. Unfortunately it is still
the upper surface of the land which is the source of
wealth and power. The soil being utilised to the fullest
extent affords work and homes for a busy population which
now has little chance to increase much in country areas.
One noticeable feature of the landscape for which
man is wholly responsible is the regular division of arable
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 7
and grass lands into fields, well fenced with stone dykes,
with hedges of intermingled thorn and beech, and with
iron fences. Shapely and well-assorted plantations of soft
and hard wood indicate a careful land culture. Great
herds and flocks move on numerous pastures. Every-
where comfortable farmsteads appear. On prominent
spots many hoary ruined fortalices stand, and towers,
repaired and enlarged into modern mansions, are visible
in wooded demesnes in greater numbers than in other
shires. These residences indicate the presence of a class
personally interested in the land, being heirs or successors
of the many barons and proprietary who once were
powerful factors in the affairs of The Borders.
3. Size. Shape. Boundaries.
In size Dumfriesshire ranks eighth among Scottish
counties, and in population fourteenth. Its greatest
length from north-west to south-east, that is, from Eller-
goffe Knowe (1264) to Liddel, is 53^ miles, and from
north to south-south-west, that is, from Loch Craig Head
(2625) to a point south-south-west of Caerlaverock Castle,
32| miles. The shore line extends 32 miles. Its area
contains 708,071 acres, inclusive of foreshore and tidal
water, or 1106 square miles; or 690,294 acres exclusive
of these, or 1078 miles. There are 4000 acres, or six
square miles, of inland water.
This area would appear on the map as an oval with
a serrated boundary, were the northern indentation by
8 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Lanarkshire removed. Six lowland Scottish shires —
Kirkcudbright, Ayr, Lanark, Peebles, Selkirk and Rox-
burgh, and one English county — Cumberland — gird the
shire.
Queensberry Hill (2285) stands near the centre of the
northern boundary. From it to either side springs a great
arc of high hills, thereby forming two almost semicircular
boundaries along the northern frontier. Beginning the
circuit on the extreme west side, where Dumfries touches
Kirkcudbright and Ayr, one finds the Lorg range, with
three summits, rising in Blacklorg to 2231 feet, and form-
ing a watershed for Afton on the north and the many
feeders of the Nith in the west. A lofty ridge curves
around Kirkconnel by McCririck's Cairn (1824) beneath
Corsincone (1547), on to the limits of Ayr and Lanark
at Threeshire Stone (1500), near Mount Stuart Hill
(1567), then eastward by Spango (1391) to Wanlock Dod
(1808), between Wanlockhead and Leadhills. Thence
the watershed sweeps south to Lowther Hill (2377) — tne
highest altitude there. The range still keeps high while
bounding Durisdeer, in the Waal Hill reaching 1987 feet,
and in Wedderlaw 2185 feet.
Beginning again slightly north of Queensberry, the
course of the second arc tends northward with a declivity
of a few hundred feet till it touches Peeblesshire and
Lanarkshire, beneath Flecket Hill (1522), in the vicinity
of Annanhead Hill (1566), and the Devil's Beef Tub.
Again ascending to the north-west with increasing altitude
— at Hartfell (2651) — it comes to the boundary of Selkirk-
shire at Loch Craig Head (2625), 70 feet lower than
10 DUMFRIESSHIRE
White Coomb (2695). The boundary curves round Loch
Skene; and taking a southerly course at a height of over
2000 feet, it reaches Capel Fell (2223), east of Moffat
Water. A northern sweep by Ettrick Pen (2270) — the
highest hill in that quarter — brings it with varying declivity
round Eskdalemuir, south of Ettrick, past the boundary
of Roxburghshire, fixed above Moodlaw Loch, to Cause-
way Grain Head (1607). It then descends southward by
Hartgarth Fell (1806), east of Ewes, till it meets Liddel
Water, the boundary with England.
Liddel Water, till it joins the Esk near The Scots
Dyke, for five miles in straight line from point to point,
forms the boundary between Canonbie and Cumberland.
The Scots Dyke runs till it almost touches the river Sark,
which now becomes the boundary between the countries
as it flows south to join the Esk. In the channel of the
Esk, as it flows west, the boundary is fixed for a few miles,
till Esk reaches the Eden opposite TordufF Point. Eden
falls into Solway; and Solway Firth, below Newbie,
becomes the extreme boundary on the south.
To complete the environment — going north from this
point the boundary lies between Dumfries and Kirkcud-
bright till Ayrshire is reached at Meikledodd Hill (2100).
At first it divides Blackshaw Bank and does not touch the
Nith till well up its channel, which it crosses and rejoins
beneath Kelton Bank. In the Nith, flowing between
Dumfries and Maxwelltown, the boundary is fixed till it
reaches the Water of Cluden at Lincluden, whence it goes
in a north-westerly direction till Lower Stepford is reached.
Here the Barbuie Burn separates the shires, and the
SIZE SHAPE BOUNDARIES 11
boundary runs south of Dunscore parish between hills
rising over 1000 feet, on past Craigenputtock (700) and
Loch Urr, round Glencairn, across Benbrack (1900) and
Black Hill (1808) — the western limit of Tynron parish.
Touching Penpont, the boundary next reaches to Sanquhar
at Blacklorg (2231) — the western limit as stated at the
outset.
In the thirteenth century and onwards the boundary
between England and Scotland was the river Esk. In
1552 the frontier was shifted to the Sark. The district
between the old and new limits was debateable. This
Debateable Land, known as "the lands Batable or Threpe
Lands," lay partly in England and partly in Scotland. Its
south boundary was the Esk from its junction with the
Liddel to the spot where the Esk and the Sark met. It
comprehended the baronies of Kirkandrews and Morton
in Cumberland, and Brettalach or Bryntalone, now
Canonbie, in Dumfriesshire.
4. Surface and General Features.
The surface of the county, rising from sea-level to an
altitude of nearly 2700 feet, is varied with holm and ridge,
dell and hill, with here and there a sheet of water breaking
the monotony of a green landscape. Its pastoral aspect is
noteworthy. One-half of the whole area is covered with
hill-grass and heath, more than one-fifth with permanent
pasture, and more than one-fifth is arable land. Thus
there is little left for woodland, water, and waste in a
12 DUMFRIESSHIRE
territory agreeably parcelled out into 2700 agricultural
holdings.
The surface, generally speaking, presents no abrupt
features, but meadow land slopes up to ridge, ridges reach
to uplands, and these rise to the high spurs which emerge
from the barriers on the northern limits. The systematic
disposition of the great valleys and minor dales, already
referred to, with their relative streams, forms a certain
regularity of surface in every district. This lie of the
land permits nature to display every charm from the
beauty and riches of long and well-tilled alluvial fields of
a red hue, the picturesque aspect of copse and wood, self-
sown or planted by river and bank up to the hills clad
with heath or mountain grass. The upper valley of Nith,
the middle basin round Thornhill, and the ever widening
Strath extending from Dumfries to Sol way Firth are in
turn scenes of pastoral and sylvan beauty. Similarly the
triple vales of Annan, narrow at MofFat, widening into
"The Howe of Annandale," and debouching into the
Solway Strath, have characteristics almost identical with
those of Nithsdale. Eskdale, with its three vales of Ewes,
Esk, and Wauchope, united at the town of Langholm,
less extensive and more rural, still beautiful, sooner
descends into the Lowlands.
Of the lofty hills piled in concentric circles along the
northern frontiers enough has been written to suggest the
grandeur of many serene vales at their base, and many
noisy torrents in rocky beds, such as Crichope Linn, and
the Cauldron at Wamphray in the hills. Travellers have
felt the charm of the pensive Passes of Mennock, Dalveen,
SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 13
and Waalpath, and the glamour of Scaur Water and
Shinnel in Nithsdale : have realised the grandeur invest-
ing The Devil's Beef Tub in Annandale, and lonely Loch
Skene in the wilds of Moffatdale: and have lingered on
Langholm Bridge, Whita Hill, Hollows Tower, and
other fascinating spots in Eskdale.
Of prominent hills in the west is Cairnkinna (1819)
Dalveen Pass
in Penpont parish, overlooking Nithsdale, Glencairn, and
the Solway Strath as far as Cumberland. Queensberry
(2285), in the very centre, commands Nithsdale, Annan-
dale, the seaboard and the silvery Firth beyond. Be-
tween these points, eminent stands Drumlanrig Castle
(300) surmounting the landscape garden of Middle
Nithsdale made by Douglases and Scotts.
From Hartfell (2651) in Moffat parish, nearly 366
14 DUMFRIESSHIRE
feet higher than Queensberry, the Firth and the German
Ocean can be seen.
Eskdale and the Border land for many miles is domi-
nated by Whita Hill (1162), on which is erected an
obelisk in memory of Sir John Malcolm. The Roman
strategists proved their knowledge of surveying when they
established Birrenswark Camp (920), in Hoddom parish,
as a frontier post from which beacon signals could be
communicated far on every side.
Perhaps the beautiful holm lands in all the vales, when
in pasture or crop, impress a visitor most ; but the happy
distribution of waters running in romantic courses shaded
with luxuriant trees is a feature of the shire oft recalled.
The rounded bosses of the hills too are impressive features.
Extensive mosses also suggest the age when the primal
forests stood in majesty, as now the last of the ancient
oak woods stands in decadence, great but dying, round
Lochwood ruined Tower, beside a vast peat moss.
5. Watershed. Rivers and Lakes.
The lakes are mere fountain-heads of inconsiderable
streams. The true watershed is the chain of lofty hills
running from west to east on the northern frontier.
From this elevated plateau the water is shed into three
out of the four cardinal directions of the compass. At
two points, only 1 1 miles apart, rise the important rivers
Tweed and Clyde; the former emerging west of Annan-
head Hill (T566) from Flecket Hill (1522), from which
WATERSHED. RIVERS AND LAKES 15
also, and not half a mile away, springs a leader which
feeds one of the three head-waters of the Annan.
The Clyde, in its principal head-stream — Daer Water
— rises on the north side of Gana Hill (2190) on the
boundary of Closeburn, four miles and a half due east of
Carronbridge railway station. Both Tweed and Clyde flow
north for a considerable distance then descend respectively
east and west. It is different with the river Nith (55
miles), which has a south-easterly course across the water-
shed made for it in a local depression. Three times in its
sluggish journey through the parishes of New Cumnock,
Kirkconnel, and Sanquhar would slight barriers force its
waters back to join the Glasnock and to emerge at Ayr.
Nith, starting from Benbrack Hill (1621) in Dalmelling-
ton, flows east into New Cumnock, and runs first in a
north-easterly direction, then eastward past New Cumnock
town to the boundary of the shire in Kirkconnel. In-
creased by the Afton and other tributaries which descend
from the watershed, Nith without the Ayrshire waters
would still have been a river of volume like Annan. It
runs into a narrow pass, its banks here and there fringed
with trees, before it reaches the village of Kirkconnel,
where a more open oval tract of undulating ground
appears. This vale of Upper Nithsdale, with its distinct
circuit of hills over uoo feet high, is nine miles long
and over four miles broad. In its descent the river on its
right bank is joined below Kirkconnel by the Kello (10),
and below the burgh of Sanquhar by the Euchan (9);
while on the left bank above Sanquhar the romantic
Crawick (8) falls into it. Passing through the woodlands
16 DUMFRIESSHIRE
of Eliock, on the left swollen by the Mennock (6), Nith
finds restraint within a grey picturesque defile through
which it winds past the hamlet below historic Enterkin.
It next plunges into the red ravines above Drumlanrig,
through its woods, passing half a mile east of the Castle,
beneath which it is joined by Marr Burn. A little lower,
near Carronbridge, the Carron (9), draining the dale of
Durisdeer, broadens the river speeding on in serpentine
track through a vast garden. Middle Nithsdale, or The
Thornhill Basin, as geologists term it, is an emerald oval,
eleven miles long and seven miles broad, bisected by the
river Nith.
At a distance of one mile and a half south-west of
Thornhill, the Cample (10), increased by streamlets from
the heathery hills on the east, falls into Nith. A mile
farther south, the brown waters of the Scaur (20) —
increased near Penpont by its tributary the Shinnel (12) —
having drained Penpont, Tynron, and part of Keir, roll
over the bluish-grey gravel at Keir into Nith. Flowing
on down the valley, straitened at Blackwood, through the
red bridge of Auldgirth, into the Dumfries basin circled
by the hills of Kirkmahoe, Dunscore, Terregles, Mabie
and Tinwald, Nith, deeper and broader, continues its
oblique course through this arable tract. It obtains
additional volume at Lincluden Abbey, where the waters
of Cluden (23), gathered by many streamlets in Dunscore
and Glencairn parishes — namely Old Cluden, Glenesslin,
Cairn, Castlefern, Craigdarroch, and Dalwhat, all from
the west — fall into Nith. Flowing through Dumfries
and Maxwelltown in a stream 94 yards broad, it meets
H. D.
18 DUMFRIESSHIRE
the tide and with it rushes to the Solway Firth, passing
on the Dumfries side Kingholm, Kelton, and Glencaple,
the local ports.
Running nearly parallel with the Nith from a source
in Kirkmahoe, east of High Auldgirth, Park Burn (16) —
then Lochar Water — flows south through the parishes
of Kirkmahoe, Tinwald, and Torthorwald into Lochar
Moss, touching Dumfries and Mouswald, where it is
joined by the Wath Burn, then on through Caerlaverock
into Ruthwell, where its sluggish stream falls into the
Solway.
Two miles below Moffat three mountain streams
unite in the holms and form the river Annan (40). North
of that point at Annanhead Hill (1566) the middle stream,
least of the three, the Annan is supposed to rise ; but a
longer feeder — the Lochan (7) — descends from Barry
Grain Rig.
The second head-stream, Evan, on the west descends
from the highlands of Lanarkshire through romantic,
wooded defiles traversed from Beattock by the highway
to Edinburgh and by the Caledonian Railway. Of its
many tributaries Garpol Water is the greatest. The
third and longest branch, Moffat Water (13), supposed to
rise at Birkhill (1080), really rises at the extreme boundary
at Loch Craig Head (2625) whose southern slopes drain
into Loch Skene. Its sustaining rivulets descend through
19 "cleuchs," "grains" or "gills," stretching up to the
boundaries on both sides. The coach road to St Mary's
Loch is parallel to the stream.
South of the meeting of these three streams, where
Moffat : the Well Burn
2—2
20 DUMFRIESSHIRE
the vale is three miles and a half broad, the river flows
south between Wamphray and Johnstone into the widen-
ing valley of Mid Annandale, which surrounds Lochmaben
and Lockerbie. Here the oval basin contains a smaller
cup — seven miles across from Quhytewoollen Hass (733)
to Hightown Hill (818) — in which lie the Lochs of
Lochmaben. Before reaching this depression the river
has been joined, first by the Wamphray (8) from Croft
Head (2085), and below Applegarth by the united streams
of Kinnel and IE,. Kinnel (17) takes its rise in the
uplands of Kirkpatrick Juxta beyond Queensberry, and,
having passed through the woods of Johnstone, it descends
to meet the JEy rising on the other side of Queensberry
and draining Kirkmichael parish. South of a line drawn
between Lockerbie and Lochmaben, the Dryfe (13), from
the east, running from Loch Fell (2256) and draining the
narrow dale of Dryfe, falls into Annan. Now bending
south-west Annan, joined by the Milk (17) from the
east, in its united stream of Milk and Corrie, reaches
the lovely woods of Hoddom. Another tributary from
the east is the Mein (7), from Tundergarth, which mingles
with Annan at a point one mile and a half south-south-
west of Ecclefechan. In an expansive Strath, Annan
passes Brydekirk village, at Annan meets the tidal waters,
and two miles lower down reaches the Waterfoot.
With devious, almost semicircular course, the Kirtle
(15), rising from the hills between Middlebie and Lang-
holm, after draining Middlebie and Kirkpatrick Fleming,
falls into the Sark south of Old Gretna, and near the
confluence of the river Esk.
WATERSHED. RIVERS AND LAKES 21
The third great valley in the county is watered by the
Esk (40). The White Esk (6) rises to the north of
Ettrick Pen (2270) in Eskdalemuir. The Garvald (5)
from the western Fells joins the White Esk at the 700
feet level; and the united streams swelled by the Mood-
law, Rae, and other streamlets from the east, flow
southward beyond Westerkirk till, on the west, they are
joined by the Black Esk. The Black Esk (12) takes its
rise at Jock's Shoulder (1754). Now styled the Esk, the
river takes several abrupt turns in a northerly direction
and is joined by Meggat Water (8), with Stennies Water
from the north of Westerkirk. Shut within a narrow
vale, less than two miles broad, Esk flows circuitously and
rapidly to Langholm town, where it is joined on the east
by Ewes Water, and on the west by the Wauchope (5).
The Ewes (10) from the north-east boundary flows
through lovely defiles side by side with the highway from
Carlisle to Edinburgh. Tending to the south-west, Esk
descends through Canonbie, being swelled on the left bank
by the impetuous Tarras (9), which rises at Hartsgarth.
After passing through the wooded glen south of Lang-
holm, past Canonbie village, Esk enters England, being
joined below Nether Woodhouselee by the Liddel Water,
and turns away westward to join the Eden and fall into
the Solway. Liddel Water, after a long course through
Roxburghshire, touches Dumfriesshire beneath Liddelbank
and becomes the boundary between Canonbie and
Cumberland for over five miles.
The historic Sark (13) rises in the Collin Hags, flows
by Middlebie, between Half Morton, Kirkpatrick-Fleming,
o
-a
c
WATERSHED. RIVERS AND LAKES 23
and Gretna parishes and Cumberland, and falls into the
Esk south of Old Gretna.
Loch Skene is a mountain loch, four-fifths of a mile
long and less than one-fifth of a mile broad on the average,
lying 1700 feet above sea-level in a deep pot beneath Loch
Craig Head. This still dark lake is the result of the
Loch Skene
confinement of the hill waters by moraines — relics of old
glacier movements — thrown in crescent shape across the
valley. Out of Loch Skene issues the Tailburn, which
casts itself over a precipice forming the lovely cascade
known as The Grey Mare's Tail, altogether nearly 400
feet high. The ruddy fleshed trout of Loch Skene is
much prized by anglers.
24 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Around Lochmaben several lochs remain, namely the
Castle Loch, 200 acres, Mill Loch, 70 acres, Kirk Loch,
60 acres, Hightae Loch and Marr Loch, 52 acres, and
two "blind" lochs: Grummell Loch and Brummel, or
Halleaths, Loch are now drained.
Loch Urr, 623 feet above sea-level, lies in Dunscore
and Glencairn parishes, and partly in Balmaclellan. It
measures 137765 acres, of which 33 acres are in Bal-
maclellan, and 33 in Glencairn. Out of it flows the Urr
Water. A few smaller lochs exist. Out of Townfoot
Loch, Closeburn, flows a streamlet which descends
through the wild ravine of Crichope into the Cample.
6. Geology and Soil.
The earth itself partly tells the story of its origin and
growth below the surface and upon it, and of various forms
of vegetable and animal life which have in succession
existed in ages long gone by. In the crust of the earth
— our only accessible book — we can read this ancient
record from the minerals and rocks composing it. The
term "rock" denotes either a material mass formed of
one mineral or composed of more than one. Conse-
quently it has been found necessary to classify the various
rocks according to their characteristics and differences.
These fall into three main divisions, with many sub-
divisions in each, namely (i) unstratified, massive, igneous,
or eruptive; (2) stratified, sedimentary, or aqueous; (3)
metamorphic or altered rocks. For convenience the
GEOLOGY AND SOIL
25
terftis igneous, aqueous, and metamorphic are generally
used.
Grey Mare's Tail, Moffat
The igneous rocks are the earliest variety, lie at the
very base of the crust, and have been pushed among and
through the other rocks, somewhat like lava in its flow.
26 DUMFRIESSHIRE
There they cooled slowly, solidified under pressure, and
settled. Their composition and texture are very varied.
Active volcanoes indicate what place and function this
unseen basal foundation of the whole earth has. The
aqueous, or sedimentary rocks, are found in layers —
stratified; and because of this feature they are of the
greatest importance to the inquirer, since they have been
deposited at different times and within their composition
preserve memorials of the various epochs they have passed
through. Within their substance fragments of different
minerals and rocks, of chemical precipitates, such as salts,
and, still more instructive, of fossils of plants, fishes and
animals, are found in well-defined groups. For example,
in limestone caverns stalactites falling from the roof, and
stalagmites rising from the floor, are formed by the de-
position of carbonate of lime in solution ; and the masses
formed often have encrusted in them many foreign
materials. Similarly Crustacea, mollusca, zoophytes, and
foraminifera ever eliminate carbonate of lime from water,
and this on deposition makes solid rock. The ooze of
the ocean bed filled with the skeletons of foraminifera
becomes a kind of chalk. Coral, resembling limestone,
is built up in similar manner. Nearly all the land surface
and much of the sea-bed are of the sedimentary class.
The winds too have been important factors in gathering
sand and loose material together into situations favourable
to stratification.
The third class of rocks is the metamorphic, consisting
of the above two classes after they have undergone altera-
tion. The action of irresistible subterranean forces, which,
GEOLOGY AND SOIL
27
interacting with heat and water, pressed, crushed, and re-
arranged the composition of the mineral elements giving
them crystalline structure and properties, is seen in the
resultant products. These are called schists and range
from silky slates, or phyllites, up to coarse granite-like
gneisses.
Thus the earth, upon examination, tells how it has
been acted upon by fire, water, air, and life under law.
Taking all these facts into consideration, geologists have
laid down the order of succession of the stratified formation
of the earth's crust as follows :
u o
>• o
5 o
«u
Systems
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Oligocene
Eocene
General Characteristics
Boulder Clay, Sands, Gravels.
Shelly Sands and Gravels.
Clays, Marls, Sands, Limestones.
Sands, Clays, Loam.
& o I Cretaceous
g ol Jurassic
* " ' Triassic
Chalks, Sandstones, Clays.
Shales, Sandstones, Limestones.
Sandstones, Limestones, Gypsum, Salt.
Permian
Carboniferous
Old Red Sandstone and Devonian
( Ludlow Beds )
j Wenlock Beds I
( Llandovery BedsJ
f Caradoc Beds ]
•I Llandeilo Beds I
(Arenig Beds J
Silurian
Ordovician or
Lower Silurian
, Cambrian
Red Sandstones, Magnesian Limestones.
Sandstones, Shales, Limestones, Coal.
Red Sandstones, Slates, Limestones.
Sandstones, Shales, Limestones.
Shales, Slates, Sandstones, Limestones.
Sandstones, Slates, Limestones.
Dumfriesshire forms a part of a high Silurian table-
land which stretches from Port Patrick across country to
St Abb's head. This extensive belt consists almost wholly
28 DUMFRIESSHIRE
of massive grits, greywackes (whinstone), flags and shales,
except in certain circumscribed areas where the carboni-
ferous system is in evidence. This table-land is hilly,
conformable to the system. The Silurian strata, however,
having been subjected to great lateral pressure, bent,
squeezed, inverted, and often times cleft, are found
somewhat complicated, without any remarkable meta-
morphism. The hills, irregularly set, have taken shape
and position, through no upheaval, but through the
erosion of the valleys. They resisted the scooping forces
which bared the hollows and sculptured the romantic
craigs and dales. This Silurian area was in Palaeozoic
times overlaid by a thick bed of Old Red Sandstone,
which has totally disappeared through denudation, although
it appears over the county boundary in Ayrshire and
stretches away in a north-easterly direction to the Braid
Hills, near Edinburgh. In the hollows worn out of this
high table-land, first Old Red Sandstone, followed in order
by the strata of the Carboniferous system, then rocks of
the Permian and Triassic period were deposited to be in
turn borne away except from some depressions in the
vales of Nith, Annan and Esk. In Spango basin, on the
northern boundary, granite, older than the Upper Old
Red Sandstone, invades the Silurian system; and dykes
of felsite, diorite and other igneous rocks appear in the
Silurian area of the same age.
Before the Old Red Sandstone period passed away
and as a result of volcanic action, igneous rocks appeared
and in the form of slaggy, amygdaloidal andesites inter-
vened between the sandstone and carboniferous strata.
GEOLOGY AND SOIL 29
The lava flow is traceable between Tarras and Birrens-
wark, and sites of volcanic orifices are seen in Tarras,
Liddel, and Ewes dales. Birrenswark Hill is simply a
mass of lava standing up through a bed of Upper Old
Red Sandstone. There is a visible outcrop of lavas and
agglomerates (with dolerite and gabbro) on the northern
boundary near Wanlockhead, Bailhill, Sanquhar, and
Euchan Water ; and volcanic vents of the Permian age
can be traced in that district. Only volcanic tuffs are
found in the Moffat area.
The Lower Silurian system, in its two-fold division
of Llandeilo and Caradoc beds, is represented in seven
groups of varying character and thickness. Examples
of Llandeilo formation are seen near Raehills, of Caradoc
at Hartfell Spa, and of Llandovery at Dobb's Linn, all
near Moffat. Around Moffat there is a large zone of
black shale accompanied with true deep-sea deposits, with
grey shales and yellow shattery clayey bands. Between
Moffat and Sanquhar lies the Dalveen group of hills,
where a series of fine blue and grey greywackes and
shales similar to those of the Llandeilo bed is found.
The Hartfell black shales disappear to the west of San-
quhar, their place being taken by grey sandy shales with
dark seams through them ; and in the district south of
Eskdalemuir they pass into Wenlock beds. A line drawn
from Ewes Water Head by Langholm to Mouswald forms
the boundary between Llandovery and Wenlock. An-
other line drawn from Langholm to Ruthwell indicates
where the Upper Silurian is covered by the Upper Old
Red Sandstone and by Carboniferous rock. An interesting
30 DUMFRIESSHIRE
portion of the Caradoc area — greywackes and grits with
coarse conglomerates exposed — is found in the upper part
of Penpont and Tynron, extending westward from Scaur,
Chanlock and Shinnel Waters. These conglomerates
contain pebbles of quartz, quartz rock, lydian-stone, blue
and grey greywackes, grey shales and pieces of black
shale. Graptolites were found among the fragments of
black shale.
The Queensberry Group is a great series of massive
grits of Tarannon Age, systematically jointed, with Barlae
shales on top, and grey and blue shales at base resting on
the lower black shale bed, and spreading over the south-
western quarter of the shire into Kirkcudbright. In the
Cluden Valley the black shale is thickly covered with
drift, and just crops out north of Glenesslin. In the
Scaur Valley there is a considerable area of the "Grieston"
series, and in the blue shales of the vicinity the trilobite
has been unearthed.
Of metamorphism in the Lower Silurian area there
is a fine example at Bail Hill, Kirkconnel, where the
transition from ordinary greywacke and shale into crys-
talline amorphous rocks is seen. The resultant mass is
a curious, varied, undefinable blend. In the area around
Wanlockhead the Lower Silurian rocks are traversed by
two veins, one running north-west and south-east, the other
west-north-west and east-south-east. These contain lead,
iron, barytes, sulphuret of zinc, copper-pyrites, and silver.
Gold is found in the alluvia of the streams. Both lead
and silver are worked to profit. The lie of the strata in
the lead-producing region is as follows : greywacke ; Black
GEOLOGY AND SOIL
31
Jack (zinc-blende decomposing into clay, ^ inch); "vein-
stuff" (greywacke ground and mixed with quartz, i J inch) ;
calc-spar (^ to I inch); galena (^ inch); "vein-stuff"
(quartz ore and quartz, 2 to 3 inches); blue greywacke
(calcareous, 3^ feet) ; hard quartz (iron pyrites in "flowers,"
7 inches) — total, 8 feet 3 inches.
The Carboniferous system is well illustrated in several
parts of the shire — in a tract from Langholm to Ruthwell,
in Middle Nithsdale, and in Upper Nithsdale. The layers
descend in the following order — sandstone, shales, reddened
and yielding plants — coal measure. These Carboniferous
Sanquhar Coalfield
rocks still lie in ancient hollows worn out of the Silurian
rocks in the Palaeozoic age, first filled with Old Red
Sandstone, next eroded, and later filled with Carboniferous
and Permian strata, which also were hollowed into the
present depressions. This primeval Carboniferous valley
— now called Nithsdale — begins at Kirkconnel, where a
barrier would have diverted Nith into the Clyde. Con-
sisting of sandstones — white, grey, and red — of dark shales
with seams of coal, iron-stone, and limestone, this series is
in evidence around Sanquhar, in Carron Water, and the
Nith at Drumlanrig.
32 DUMFRIESSHIRE
The Kirkconnel and Sanquhar coal-beds lie in an area
measuring nine miles long with a breadth averaging from
two to four miles, and is an extension of the Ayr coalfield.
The strata descend I2OO feet, and the coal measures lie
above the depressed surface of that part of the Silurian
area which a fault has lowered. In different seams, with
intervening strata, are found "creepie" coals, calmstone,
twenty-inch, daugh, splint and swallow-craig coals. In
one-half of the field, lying to the south-west, three
doleritic dykes, throwing out intrusive sheets, disturb
the measures and render the working of coal unprofitable
there. In Upper Nithsdale the Silurian barrier did not
sink beneath the sea-level till the latter part of the Car-
boniferous period. At . Sanquhar red marls and clays,
lying in the upper part of the coal measure, are avail-
able for the manufacturing of bricks, terra-cotta, pottery,
tiles, etc.
Canonbie coalfield is said to represent the true
coal measures of the central valley of Scotland. In the
valleys of the Liddel and the Esk the nine following zones
are represented in their ascending order : the Whita
sandstone ; the cement-stone group ; Fell sandstones ;
Glencartholm volcanic group; marine limestone group
with coal seams; millstone grit; Rowanburn coal group;
Byreburn coal group; red sandstones of Canonbie. In
the Glencartholm volcanic zone, a number of new fishes,
decapod crustaceans, phyllopods and scorpions have been
found in the calcareous shale associated with the tuffs.
As Nith courses south to Drumlanrig the Carboniferous
system, through which it has cut its channel, appears lying
GEOLOGY AND SOIL 33
on the Lower Silurian rocks. Permian rocks appear above
them both. The Carron Valley presents both Carboni-
ferous and Permian rocks in varying positions, the latter
sometimes overlapping the former. In the Thornhill
Basin, that is from Blackwood north to the Lowther
foot-hills, Carboniferous rocks of the earliest type appear,
having fossiliferous red limestone bands lying above or
below older and later sandstone, coloured red and reddish
grey. The limestone is confined to the lower part of the
basin, and is worked at Closeburn and across the Nith at
Barjarg in Keir, where the Carboniferous rocks are best
displayed. At Closeburn the strata are thus disposed :
red shaly sandstone and purple and red mottled shales ;
red Magnesian limestone, 14 feet; red sandstones and
clays, 1 8 feet; thick red almost pure limestone, 18 feet.
Fossils common to the formation are found here. The
other series of marine limestone found in Esk, Penton,
Ecclefechan, and Kelhead have been wrought to commer-
cial advantage. Kelhead is still an extensive work.
From Cumberland to Ayrshire the Permian rocks lie
on the top of the Carboniferous system. They exist
in two series — rocks of a lower volcanic character and a
brick-red sandstone of considerable thickness. In the
Permian age lava streams flowed over some parts of this
area, then cooled into a band upon the Silurian or Car-
boniferous surface ; and upon this porphyritic bed the
stratified rocks of the Permian order rest. In places the
porphyritic bed is interstratified with tuff and red sand-
stone : in others the brick-red sandstones are full of volcanic
dlbris and bands of red volcanic tuff. Above Crichope
H. D. 3
Crichope Linn
GEOLOGY AND SOIL 35
Linn, Thornhill, the Carboniferous rocks disappear, and
porphyritic rock and sandstone of the Permian series take
their place. At Locherben, between the systems, lies a
bed of breccia made up of Silurian fragments, and blocks
of porphyrite imbedded in a brick-red ashy paste. In the
Dumfries Basin, where the Carboniferous rocks and vol-
canic series of Permian rocks are absent, the brick-red
sandstones rest on a coarse breccia above the Silurian rock.
This breccia is composed of pink felstone with hornblende,
grey and purplish greywacke, grey shale, quartz rock and
grey schist. There is a great demand for building pur-
poses for the easily hewn Permian sandstones got in the
quarries at Gatelawbridge, Closeburn, Locharbriggs, Corse-
hill, Annanlea, Cove, and Corncockle. In Corncockle
Dr Duncan of Ruthwell discovered the footprints of
extinct reptilia. The grey calcareous sandstone of King's
Quarry and Auchennaight, Nithsdale, affords massive
material for edifices such as Morton and Drumlanrig
Castles. The Triassic rocks rest un conformably on all
the older formations within Dumfriesshire.
The great ice-sea, in moving from the west in an
easterly and south-easterly direction over this area, rounded
off the hills and left their rock-faces in many parts scarred
with the striae which tell of this passage. The ultimate
result was the deposition of the boulder clays, beds and
banks of gravels and sand in the valleys, the dropping of
such a grand landmark as the historic "trysting" stone
of Clochmaben in Gretna, and other transported boulders
taken from Criffel across country over the Borders, the
laying down of the fine glacial clay at Ryedale and
3—2
36 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Hannahfield, Dumfries, and the formation of the vast
moraines which are a striking feature at Loch Skene,
and of the raised beaches seen near Queensberry.
The richest soils are to be found on the higher alluvial
flats by the banks of the rivers and streams ; but by Nith,
Cluden, and Cairn, where there is a wide distribution of
gravelly drift, the soils are generally light. As a general
rule, the arable soil rests upon a subsoil of clay, especially
in the more level tracts of country, in the valleys, or in
the uplands. Nearly all broken land is tinged with a
ruddy hue arising from the presence of oxide of iron.
The Corncockle sandstone exhibits a light terra-cotta red
colour and this hue is very prevalent in the sandstone belts
upon the ploughed fields. The analysis of the stone shows
— silica 95'iO; alumina i'i6; oxide of iron '85; lime
•31; potash 1*25; magnesia 'IO; soda *2O; titanic oxide
•13; combined water '90. The weight of the stone is
126 ibs. for every cubic foot.
7. Natural History.
In recent times — recent, that is, geologically — no sea
separated Britain from the Continent. The present bed
of the German Ocean was a low plain intersected by the
waters of the present Rhine, which had among its tribu-
taries the various eastward- flowing streams of Britain. At
that period, then, the plants and the animals of our country
were identical with those of Western Europe. But the
ice age came and crushed out life in this region. In time,
NATURAL HISTORY 37
as the ice melted, the flora and fauna gradually returned,
for the land-bridge still existed. Had it continued to exist,
our plants and animals would have been the same as in
Northern France and the Netherlands. But the sea
drowned the land and cut off Britain from the Continent
Drumlanrig Castle
before all the species found a home here. Consequently,
on the east of the North Sea all our mammals and reptiles,
for example, are found along with many which are not
indigenous to Britain. In Scotland, however, we are
proud to possess in the red grouse a bird not belonging
to the fauna of the Continent.
38 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Dumfriesshire is a profitable resort for naturalists.
Nearly all the trees and shrubs indigenous to Britain,
60 in number, are found flourishing within this area.
There is no trace of the ancient Caledonian Forest, save
what is preserved in the name of part of it — Holywood ;
but in remote glens there are patches of old self-sown,
free growing copses of hazel and birch, with willow and
alder in moist situations. The mosses sometimes give up
bulky trunks of oak and Scots fir indicating how widespread
the natural forest was. In 1756 the woods of Drumlanrig
were felled by a storm and converted into rudimentary
peat, a kind of transformation within historic times testified
to by many peat hags. Some grand trees have survived
storm and axe for centuries, and remain models for those
landholders who have enriched the landscape with orna-
mental and commercial plantations, which have ripened
and given place to other profitable woods. Nevertheless
only one twenty-third part of the soil is thus occupied.
There yet survives round Drumlanrig Castle a small
remnant of that
" noble horde,
A brotherhood of venerable trees,"
whose destruction by a Duke of Queensberry in the end
of the eighteenth century stirred the poets Burns and
Wordsworth into mournful verse. Some were so large
as to produce the impression of an antiquity antecedent
to the advent of the Douglases into Nithsdale in the four-
teenth century. The policies of Drumlanrig contain a
sycamore 100 feet high and 18 feet 3 inches in girth at
5 feet above ground, as well as an oak 89 feet high
NATURAL HISTORY 39
and 15 feet 10 inches in girth. Among other trees
approaching 100 feet high are two silver firs respectively
13 feet ii inches and 13 feet 4 inches in girth, and a
Douglas pine 12 feet 4 inches in girth. With this de-
struction of the forest, shortly before the exit of the
Douglases in 1810, is dated also the disappearance of
the wild ox —
" Mightiest of all the beasts of chase
That roam in woody Caledon."
Few districts can show such immense beeches as those
which encircle the lonely churchyard of Dalgarnock,
several being over 4 feet in diameter. In Glencairn
churchyard ash trees 12 feet in circumference, and oak
IO feet, are seen. On Craigdarroch estate, Glencairn,
thick timber grows — beech, 16^ feet in circumference,
at 5 feet from ground; horse-chestnut, n feet 10 inches;
larch, 13! feet, with clean stem 30 feet long, cut in 1906;
silver fir, 14 feet 8 inches at base; sycamore, 14 feet.
A crab-tree, 7 feet 3 inches, near Woodhouse, a horse-
chestnut, 13 feet 6 inches, at Old Crawfordton, a sycamore,
14 feet 4 inches, at Castlehill, and yew trees over 10 feet
in girth at Snade, are the finest trees in Cairn Valley.
The juniper flourishes on the hill sides, between Penpont
and IVloniaive. In Hoddom parish are several avenues
of beeches of large proportions, referred to by Thomas
Carlyle as " the kind beech-rows of Entepfuhl."
On the Springkell estate there are many magnificent
forest trees, of which the following are examples: larch
with girth of 9 feet I inch, at 5 feet, and 90 feet high;
Norway spruce, 10 feet girth, 100 feet high; Scots firs,
40
DUMFRIESSHIRE
10 feet girth and 60 feet high, and 9 feet girth and 80
feet high; silver fir, 17 feet 5 inches girth and 100 feet
high; oak, 13 feet 2 inches girth and 69 feet high; beech,
13 feet 9 inches girth and 70 feet high; sycamore, 14 feet
9 inches girth and 60 feet high; Spanish chestnut, 14 feet
girth and 55 feet high ; lime, 13 feet 6 inches girth and
Hoddom: "The kind beech-rows"
70 feet high; ash, 10 feet 9 inches girth and 70 feet high;
Huntingdon willow, 13 feet 9 inches girth and 60 feet
high.
The trees around Closeburn Castle exhibit large pro-
portions, an oak measuring 16 feet 8 inches in circum-
ference, a beech 18 feet I inch, an ash in the Town Park
26 feet 8 inches, an ash at Shawsholm 19 feet 4 inches,
NATURAL HISTORY
41
and a Scots fir at Shawsholm, these measurements being
taken at 2 feet above ground.
A silver fir, straight as an arrow, 105 feet high adorns
the woods of Bonshaw, and stands beside a gigantic poplar
rooted by the Kirtle. Similar fine examples stand on the
banks of the Esk between Langholm and Canonbie.
Lochwood Oaks
The remnant of the old oak forest around Lochwood
Tower, where gnarled, rugged, hoary specimens, many
of them over 18 feet in circumference, still flourish, are
probably the most interesting trees in the county. On
either side of the ruined tower stand an equally massive
ash and elm in vigorous life. These giants, the two great
willows on the Cundy Road, Thornhill, the yews of
42 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Drumlanrig and Snade, Dunscore, and many others equally
noble, indicate how very suitable Dumfriesshire is for
afforestation.
There is a wonderful variety of flowering plants and
of grasses in this region, four hundred of the better known
genera being represented between the sea-shore and the
hill tops. The distribution of plant life is interesting.
The ling (Calluna vulgaris), blaeberry, daisy, thyme,
crowberry, thistle, geranium (sylvaticum\ bugle, clover
(Trifolium repem\ watercress, dog-violet, wood-sage, male-
fern and other well-known plants reach high altitudes.
Foxglove and wild hyacinth are common up to noo feet.
Ranunculus and Primula up to 600 feet — the peat-hag
limit. Of Carex there are 35 varieties, of ferns 24, of
Salix 1 6 (13 being in Nithsdale, 14 in Annandale, and
5 in Eskdale), of Potamogeton 16, of rush 10, of
Poa 10, of Lycopodium 5, of Equisetum 6, and of
Myosotis 5.
The following rare Flora flourishes —
(1) On the seashore: horned poppy, Isle of Man cab-
bage, sea-rocket, sea-holly, parsley dropwort, sawwort,
sea-cat's tail grass.
(2) In holm-pastures and shady places : globe flower,
monkshood, narrow-leaved bitter cress, dusky crane's-bill,
dwarf whin, viscid Bartsia.
(3) In mosses and bogs : English sundew, marsh An-
dromeda, pale butterwort, prickly fen sedge, whorled
caraway.
(4) On river sides and in water: great watercress,
all wort, upright vetch, cowbane, quill wort, water-pepper.
NATURAL HISTORY 43
(5) On hilly pastures and rocky places: vernal sand-
wort, alpine chickweed, alpine enchanter's nightshade,
cutleaved saxifrage, baldmoney, wintergreen (two varieties),
interrupted clubmoss.
(6) On high lands : alpine meadow rue, spring Poten-
tilla, alpine saxifrage, alpine Saussurea.
The following ferns are found: — Tunbridge filmy fern
(Hymenophyllum unilaterale\ parsley fern, sea spleenwort,
green maidenhair, alpine woodsia, holly fern.
Of the vertebrates a goodly number survive. The
horns of a reindeer, with the bones of roe-deer, red-deer,
Bos pri ml genius, and the skull of the brown bear ( Ursus
arctos), found under a peat-bog on the Shaw property,
indicate some of the animals formerly existing here.
The horns of a wild ox were found in Glencairn parish
in 1906: the skull of another, found in a Nithsdale moss,
is preserved in the Grierson Museum, Thornhill. Pen-
nant, in 1772, saw a herd of the wild cattle in Drumlanrig
Park. They were driven away about the end of the
eighteenth century. The red-deer became extinct locally
in 1815, as did also the roe-deer. The latter, however,
has been reintroduced for half a century and is increasing.
The fallow deer, where existing, is a domesticated animal.
The wild cat was last seen about 1813. The squirrel,
after becoming scarce, has begun to increase again. The
foumart, badger, and black rat are extinct. The weasel,
ermine, and vole still survive. The brown rat and mouse
are on the increase. The fox gives sport in Annandale
and Eskdale. The wolf was a wild beast of chase in
Eskdale in the thirteenth century. A small herd of wild
44 DUMFRIESSHIRE
goats browses on Saddleyoke and Brandlaw in the wilds
of Moffat. The otter still hunts and is occasionally hunted
in the rivers. A seal occasionally comes up the Firth,
where the porpoise and several species of whale are seen
at times. The hedge-hog is common. The rabbit and
European hare are subjects of commerce, and the moun-
tain, or white hare, long confined to the high hills on the
watershed, is now increasing on inland moorlands. The
adder is less plentiful ; the lizard is not uncommon. The
glow-worm is common in Tynron, Moffat, and some other
places.
Of the Avifauna a good report can be made, there
being no fewer than 70 residential species, 31 summer
visitants, 31 winter visitants, 30 occasional visitors, 56
species captured in the district, and 39 specimens not
completely authenticated. To begin with the larger
birds — it is about forty years since the last golden eagle
was noticed in Nithsdale. About 1825 a very fine speci-
men was shot in Morton parish and long preserved in Burn
farm. An osprey was supposed to build in Loch Skene,
and a specimen was again seen there in 1881, while an-
other was marked at Drumlanrig in 1840. The buzzard,
or "gled," which formerly nested in the shire, increased
there during the time of the vole plague, 1891-3, and
now appears only in spring and winter. Peregrine falcons
have from 12 to 16 nests ; ravens the same number. The
lesser hawks are common. The ptarmigan is extinct
locally. The capercaillie is rare. Fourteen heronries
and 145 rookeries still exist in the county. Rooks and
jackdaws, despite the annual slaughter of them, are not
NATURAL HISTORY
45
decreasing. The chough is only an accidental visitor.
Of birds which have been rarely seen in the shire are
the great skua gull, little auk, red necked grebe, storm
petrel, and the whiskered tern (Hydrochelidon hybridd].
The bittern bleats but rarely now. The black-headed
gull nests in 12 places and is on the increase. Since the
The Whiskered Tern
(Shot near Friar's Carse, Holywood, in 1894, and noiv in
the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh]
passing of "The Wild Birds Protection Acts," 1880-1904,
and the County Protection Orders under section 76,
"Local Government (Scotland) Act," 1889, there has
been a stoppage of the cruel practice of destroying rare
birds, and a consequent increase of such beautiful birds
as the British jay, kingfisher, goldfinch, tufted duck,
46 DUMFRIESSHIRE
nightjar, cuckoo, owl, lapwing, and the smaller "minstrels
of the grove." In summer the warbling of birds in the
woodlands is a characteristic of the county.
The intelligent occupation of shootings has helped the
increase of the more harmless members of the winged
tribe, and the necessary preservation of the stock of the
edible order. The shootings in Dumfriesshire, 144 in
number, are now the basis of an important industry —
that of game rearing and preserving. The pheasant,
introduced some years before 1794, together with the
increasing woodcock and snipe, have a prominent place
in the woodlands. The red grouse (Lagopus Scoticus),
the black grouse and his grey hen (Tetrao tetrlx\ and
the partridge, notwithstanding their annual disasters, are
plentiful. In 1869 no fewer than 247 blackcock fell
in one royal shoot at Kirkconnel.
The lochs and sea-margins are vocal with the sharp
screams of dotterel, sandpiper, goose, duck, gull, tern, and
other waders, swimmers, and divers, of which there is a
delightful variety.
Of the freshwater fishes of the Solway area, that is,
from the Esk to Lochryan, there are 20 varieties.
Nearly every stream contains trout; rivers have trout,
sea-trout, grayling, and salmon. Nearly every loch has
pike or "gedd." Roach is got in Annan and Lochar;
chub in Annan; bream in Lochmaben lochs and Annan;
smelt in Nith and Annan ; and tench in Upper Nithsdale.
There are also little goby, stickleback, flounder, minnow,
loach, and Allis shad. Eels and lamprey are common.
The sea lamprey comes up the rivers to spawn. The
NATURAL HISTORY 47
sturgeon is found in the estuaries. Salmon, shrimps, and
oysters are a valuable asset.
The Loch Skene trout is a lovely fish with pink flesh
and red spots, and weighs half a pound. The Castle
Loch, Lochmaben, contains seven varieties of fish — pike,
perch, roach, bream, chub, loch trout, and the famous
vendace. The vendace (Coregonus vandesius\ only to be
caught by net, is an uncommon fish. It occurs in three
lochs at Lochmaben, and in Windermere and Bassen-
thwaite lakes. It is said to be a ground feeder and shy
of bait. Specimens weigh as much as one-sixth of a
pound. When the vendace leaves its own element for
the Annan river, it degenerates and soon succumbs.
8. Round the Coast.
The coast line beginning at Dumfries and continuing
to a point east of Old Gretna, measures 32 miles. In
its inward flow the tide touches the parishes of Gretna,
Dornock, Annan, Cummertrees, Ruthwell, Caerlaverock,
and Dumfries. The Nith, confined within its banks,
flows in a stream 100 yards broad to Kingholm Quay
on the left bank 2j miles from Dumfries. Here vessels
of 300 tons discharge. Two miles farther down on
the same side is Kelton, at one time a flourishing port
where shipbuilding was carried on. Flowing between
the green merse on the Kirkcudbright side and the
opposite low lands of Caerlaverock, and leaving at low
tide a sludgy margin, Nith reaches Glencaple Quay, less
ROUND THE COAST 49
than six miles from Dumfries. Here there are 14 feet
of water at high tide.
After this point the bank, cut by the river, begins to
widen out and is known as Blackshaw Bank — six miles
long from Nith to the channel of the Lochar and three
miles broad. Thereafter the bank is called Priestside
Bank and stretches other four miles to Powfoot. A
good road runs parallel to the Nith, and passing the base
of Banks Hill (297) and Plantation, leads to the mag-
nificent ruined castle of Caerlaverock — the "Ellangowan"
of Sir Walter Scott's novel, Guy Mannenng. This moated
stronghold of the Maxwells stands less than 50 feet above
sea-level and is partly sheltered by a wood thrashed with
sea winds and spindrift. South-east of the castle lies a
small merse on the upper edge of which are found the
Saltcot hills, reminiscent of the manufacture of salt here
in the olden time. Writing in 1612, John Monipennie
says, " Upon the banks of Sulway in June and July the
country people gather up the sand within the flood marke,
bringing it to land, and laying it in great heaps, thereafter
they take the salt Spring water and cast it upon the sand,
with a certain device causing the water to run through
the sand into a hollow purposely made to receive the
water, which water being boyled in a little vessel of lead
there is made thereof good whyte salt after the temperance
of the weather." Between the Brow-well, with its sad
memories of dying Burns, and Powfoot many of these
pits are visible. Further east from Saltcots the dark stream
of Lochar, after many a bend, touches the Sol way just
opposite the fine woods around the old castle and modern
H. D. 4
50 DUMFRIESSHIRE
mansion of Comlongon — a seat of the Earl of Mansfield —
and near to the Golf-links, one mile south of Ruthwell.
On this southern coast the territory does not rise 100 feet
above sea-level until the parish of Cummertrees is reached,
when a bank of that height is found just above Queens-
berry Bay and the village of Powfoot. Here the small
stream called the Pow burn falls into the Solway. Powfoot
is a growing fashionable watering-place of recent creation.
A few years ago, an insignificant hamlet of white-washed
houses, occupied by fishermen, less than a mile south-west
of Cummertrees village, it has been transformed into a
lively summer resort, where amid ornamental grounds,
or on greens for tennis and bowling, the bracing breezes
off the Firth may be enjoyed.
Thence for two miles inland the ground lies low and
flat, and at three miles from Powfoot the Waterfoot of
Annan is reached, after the traveller half-way has passed,
near the shore, Newbie Cottages, and thereafter the Mains
and ruined fortalice of Newbie. Newbie Tower was
formerly a seat of the Johnstones. A little distance west
of Newbie Cottages the boundary line between the Solway
Firth and the channel of the river Eden is placed. The
tide, however, goes 14 miles beyond this point up to
Alison's Bank Farm a mile distant from Gretna Green
village.
At Barnkirk Point, Annan Waterfoot, a lighthouse
stands, and from this point the river Annan takes almost
a semicircular course for nearly two miles up to Annan
town and quay. Steam vessels of over 500 tons can
sail up to this quay.
ROUND THE COAST
51
A magnificent railway viaduct spans the channel of
the river Eden, and stretches from Seafield to a spot near
Bowness on the English shore. One mile and a half east
of the viaduct the Eden, near Dornockbrow, flows into
two channels — Eden and Bowness Wath — and their
waters meet again beneath the viaduct. The Dornock
fishings were formerly very rich. On the green fields of
Solway Viaduct
Dornock, on 25th March, 1333, was fought a battle
between Sir Antony Lucy and the Knight of Liddesdale,
in which the latter was defeated and captured, many Scots
also being killed.
The vast mud flats between the two kingdoms open
out, and at a point south of TordufF the rivers Esk and
Eden unite. Here the Esk becomes the national boundary,
4—2
52
DUMFRIESSHIRE
and its circuitous channel reaches to a point east of Red-
kirk point, where formerly stood Rainpatrick Church.
Here the waters of the Kirtle and the Sark, just united
Clochmabenstane
to the south of Old Gretna, flow into the Esk. Above
this point Sark becomes the boundary.
On the flat land between the Kirtle and the Sark, at
their junction, on the farm of Old Gretna, a few yards
ROUND THE COAST 53
above high water-mark, stands a historic stone, called
Clochmabenstane, the last of a circle of stones which
stood there. It is a granite boulder over 7 feet in height,
and 17 feet in circumference. At it the wardens of
the marches held their Courts in the olden time. Here
was the termination of the Scottish ford at Sulwath — the
ford by which the opposing armies often crossed ; and
opposite to it, on the English shore, is Burgh-by-Sands,
where King Edward I died. Around Clochmabenstane,
in the battle of Sark, on 23rd October, 1448, Hugh
Douglas defeated Percy with great slaughter.
The velocity with which the tide careers up Solway
Firth with a high breast of waters is remarkable, and this
characteristic inspired Sir Walter Scott to compare with
it impulsive human affection : " Love flows like the
Solway and ebbs like its tide." " In the winter season,"
writes Neilson, the historian of the Solway, " the scene,
impressive under any conditions, is much intensified,
especially if the tide is high and there is a southerly
gale behind. Then the sea approaches with great speed,
gaining as it goes : the wave is white with tumbling foam ;
a great curve of broken surf follows in its wake : and the
white horses of the Solway ride in to the end of their long
gallop from the Irish sea with a deep and angry roar."
54 DUMFRIESSHIRE
9. Coastal Gains and Losses.
The present configuration of the lowland portions of
the shire, which have records for centuries of tillage on
the same areas without perceptible change, leads to the
conclusion that it is only under the surface on the one
hand, or high up on the ridges on the other, we can find
proof either of the loss or gain of land by the action
of the sea. In the locality of Queensberry, on a hill
behind Locherben, are observable three parallel lines of
terraces at the height of 980, 1000, and noo feet respec-
tively. The lower ledge, running from Garroch to Capel
Burn, is broken at Capel and exhibits a base of stiff red
boulder clay, overlaid with a stratum of fine sand, in turn
covered with well water-worn gravel intermingled with
sand. When the sea laved these high margins few
eminences between Hutton and Corrie and the confines
of Kirkcudbright emerged out of the waters covering
Annandale, Nithsdale and Glencairn.
The sea on the west side has a barrier in Criffel and
its spurs ; but on the east side of the Nith a long ridge
rising up from Dumfries to Trohoughton (312), an old
fort and beacon, runs south and tapers out at the sea
shore. Parallel to this ridge, another ridge four miles
away descends to sea-level at Barnkirk Point. Between
these parallels lies Lochar Moss, a little over 40 feet above
sea-level. Tradition has preserved its suggestive history:
" Once a wood and syne a sea ;
Now a moss and aye will be."
COASTAL GAINS AND LOSSES 55
In 1754 Smeaton the engineer reported that Lochar
could be reclaimed at a cost of £2952. At present the
peat is being cut on Ironhirst Moss for commercial
purposes.
The u finds " from strata in the moss, which is still
insufficiently examined, do not contribute much of its
story from the Neolithic age onwards. According to a
writer in the Statistical Account, "There is a tradition
universally credited that the tide flowed up this whole
tract above the highest bridge in the neighbourhood. In
the bottom of the moss sea-mud is found : and the banks
are evidently composed of sea sand. A few years ago
a canoe of considerable size and in perfect preservation,
was found by a farmer when cutting peats, four or five
feet below the surface. Near the same part of the moss,
and about the same depth, a gentleman found a vessel of
mixed metal... antiquities of various kinds are found in
every part of this moss where peats are dug, even near
its head, such as anchors, oars, etc. ; so that there is no
doubt of its having been navigable near a mile above the
highest bridge, and fully twelve miles above the present flood
mark." An extensive forest must have arisen on the area
from which the sea receded, and stems and trunks of oaks
which grew in the submarine clays are found, while further
inland among the sandy and gravelly deposits the roots of
fir trees are preserved in the moss.
On the west side of Nith a raised beach near Cargen
Water, three miles south-west of Dumfries, and in Kirk-
cudbrightshire, was pierced for a well. After going through
sand and silt for 15 feet, through peat for 18 feet, and
56 DUMFRIESSHIRE
through 14 feet of clay, gravel was struck. Into the
clay, where marine shells were found, the roots of a fir
tree had penetrated. Beside it were remains of charred
wood, bundles of moss, and traces of phosphate of iron,
as if indicating the work of man. The recession of
the sea had thus permitted the growth of vegetation, and
the woodland had been again submerged and covered
with the later deposits. A 50 feet beach stretches from
Park near Maxwelltown southwards to Cargenholm, and
in the flats of Cargen a later beach of 25 feet in height
indicates the recession of the sea. These have their
corresponding levels on the banks of Mouswald and
Ruthwell. But utilitarian gains of merseland have been
small.
At its lower part the Lochar Water was confined
within constructed embankments which on giving way
permitted the river to overflow lands already reclaimed
and to make a new channel through the sand and silt.
At the head of the estuary important changes have taken
place in historical times. A carefully prepared map dating
from 1552 shows what these changes have been, and how
the Solway has been receding, leaving inland many broad
acres now under the plough. The high contour lines
around Gretna indicate how strong have been the efforts
of the tide to wash away that solid barrier under which
the rivers have laid their ever increasing deposits forming
a larger delta. This map shows with great precision
above Redkirk Point (25 feet) a sketch of the handsome
structure of a church, with tower and steeple, called
Rainpatrick, then existing, which has been entirely washed
COASTAL GAINS AND LOSSES 57
away together with the foreland by the sea. At this place
the monks of Holme Cultram beyond Solway possessed
saltworks which were ultimately acquired by the monks
of Melrose in 1294.
In living memory the Eden and the Solway tide have
encroached on land between Seafield and Dornockbrow —
the latter name indicating a slight elevation — and removed
a " merse " from 60 to 80 feet broad. Barricades erected
to stop these encroachments were swept away by high
tides and the sea remained conqueror. A contemporary
chronicler records in November, 1627, the excessive rise
of the Solway tide, which surrounded "the house of
Old-Cock-pool," carried off seventeen of the salt makers
on Ruthwell Sands, and destroyed many cattle.
10. Climate and Rainfall.
The position of Dumfriesshire, surrounded on three
sides by high hills, and on the fourth side lapped by the
warm western seas, tends to the creation of a climate on
the whole mild and productive of fertility and longevity.
The force of wind and saline rain, driven from the ocean
into the valleys, is moderated by the interposition of many
high barriers which affect atmospheric conditions, so that
sunshine, shower, mist, and drying winds have a relative
distribution, in consequence of which the climate is
temperate as to heat and rain. Within the county there
are twenty-four meteorological stations, including the
national one at Eskdalemuir. The names and positions
of the three affording statistics given here are Drumlanrig
58 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Gardens in Middle Nithsdale, 191 feet above sea-level;
Dumfries, 155 feet; Comlongon in Ruthwell, 74 feet.
To these may be added Cargen, 85 feet, on the Kirkcud-
bright side of the Nith below Dumfries. Thus every
variation can be appraised.
The average barometer for the year 1909 taken at
the Crichton Institution, Dumfries, above the tidal limit,
was 29*818°; but there was a higher reading at Cargen,
and a lower at wooded Drumlanrig. For the past fifty
years the average barometer recorded at Cargen indicated
29*827°, and that is the mean of all the records, between
the highest, 30*928°, which occurred on Qth January,
1896, and the lowest, 27*620° which was read on 8th
December, 1886.
The temperature recorded for 1909 was on the general
average 46*2° Fahr.; but at Cargen a little higher, 46*5°;
and on an average of 50 years there 47*6° or 1*4° higher.
The last highest records are 82° at Drumlanrig on I3th
July, 1909, and 87° at Jardington on the preceding day;
and the lowest 1*3° at Eskdalemuir on 27th January.
The highest temperature for 50 years was 90*4°, taken
at Cargen in August, 1876, and the lowest taken there
in December, 1860, was — 4°. The highest annual average
temperature was 49*2° in 1868 with the barometer at
29*758°; and the lowest, 45*3°, in 1892 with the barometer
at 29*811°. Snow fell on 19 days during 1909. The
temperature of the Solway Firth, having the benefit of
the " Atlantic Drift " of heated surface water, is higher
than that of the rivers falling into it, and its water has
a higher temperature than the air,
Rainfall map of Scotland
(By Andrew Watt, M.A,)
Cambridge Univ. /V<7»<i
60 DUMFRIESSHIRE
The last general average rainfall was 49*91 inches,
with slightly over 50 inches at Cargen. Here in 1909
the fall was nearly 3 inches over that average, and nearly
8^ inches over the average of 50 years, which was 44*18.
The wettest year, 1872, showed 63-50 inches, and the
driest, 1880, only 3077 inches at Cargen. In 1909 the
wettest areas in the county were around Jarbruck, Glen-
cairn, 59*42; Kinnelhead, Beattock, 59*20; Langholm
(Westwater), 55*23 ; Moffat (Craigielands), 53*73 ; Ewes,
54-30 ; Cargen, 52*65 ; Eskdalemuir, 51*20 ; Drumlanrig,
47-99. There are dry spots around Dumfries — Joybank,
41*17 ; Comlongon, 41*68 ; Crichton Institution, 43*55.
Stations at Canonbie, Lochmaben and Lockerbie showed
over 45 inches ; but two other stations at Lochmaben
indicated 43*91 or an excess of 3-2 upon an average of
1 8 years. The average rainfall at 73 stations in Scotland
was 41*36, so that, except in Dumfries itself, the average
for the county is above the general average of the kingdom.
Dumfriesshire enjoys about one-third of the possible
sunshine. During 1910 the sunshine recorded at Com-
longon, Ruthwell, was 1444 hours, at Dumfries, 1368,
and at Eskdalemuir, 1275. The highest record was 223
in May at Comlongon, and the lowest 31 in December
at Dumfries. The average per month was 120 at Com-
longon, 114 at Dumfries, and 106 at Eskdalemuir. From
March to September, the average was above 152, computed
from the three registers.
The humidity of the shire is 86 p.c. While at
some stations the weather is not registered as calm or
variable, at others it is proved to be very variable. Few
CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 61
thunder-storms occur. Twenty-five per cent, of days are
overcast.
The prevailing winds are out of the west quarter, the
north-west wind however blowing, at one station, one-
third more days than the south-west wind, which shows
a considerable shifting towards due west, where the lofty
Galloway ranges cause deviations. According to observa-
tions made at Cargen, which has its own peculiar wind
record, in 1909 the west wind blew 108 days, in 1908,
1 29 days, and in 1 907, 1 2 1 days, but in 1 906 only 96 days.
The variations noted at Drumlanrig, Dumfries, and Cargen
are remarkable. Easterly wind is not prominent. Take
for example the differences of direction of wind shown at
three places contemporaneously in January, 1909, reckon-
ing from north round by east and south to north again :
Drumlanrig, north, o, o, o, 2, o, 24 west, 2, 34 north-west.
Dumfries, north, 6, i, 3, 7, 3, 20 „ 12, 8 north-west.
Cargen, north, 10,0,0,0,1, 6 „ 28, 17 north-west.
This proves how surroundings influence climatic effects.
Drumlanrig has an immunity from thunderstorms and
gales in comparison with Dumfries and Cargen. At the
latter station the mean wind-force is sometimes higher,
sometimes lower than at Dumfries, although it is in no
place excessive, being seldom scaled above 3. The gales
which devastated Scotland in 1879 and 1883 spent their
full force on the woods of the county and levelled hundreds
of thousands of splendid trees.
The conjoint interaction of sunshine, rain, mist and
breeze makes the climate agreeable and invigorating, while
62 DUMFRIESSHIRE
the facility for artificial drainage is another factor in the
increasing immunity of the inhabitants from diseases
which were formerly a sore scourge. Everywhere there
is a conspicuous absence of dust in the atmosphere, there
being few public works to pollute it with smoke and less
than usual road dust swirled up from the tough highways,
which are made of the best kind of macadam — felstone
dolerite and the hardest greywacke.
ii. People — Race, Type, Language,
Population.
Many races have contributed their blood to form the
native population on the soil of Dumfries ; and, in con-
sequence, although many families bear ancient names,
and trace their origin to a remote antiquity, there is no
distinctive type of individuals left. Of the aborigines, of
an Iberian type, of which the Gaway or Galwegian Picts
were probably the expiring remnant, there are so few
traces that conjecture takes the place of record. In that
part of Northern Britain to which early geographers
assigned the honourable place-name of Valentia in which
Dumfriesshire was included, the Romans found the
folk called Selgovae, probably hunters, keeping to the
east side of Novios or Nith, and the Novantae, also
known as Niduari and Picts, upon the Nith and westward
from it. On the south side of the Solway they located
Brigantes, who occupied part of the province of Maxima
Caesariensis. The Brigantes, evidently a Brythonic —
PEOPLE— RACE, TYPE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 63
British or Welsh — race of fighters, overran their neigh-
bours, and finally cornered the painted pagans in the
wilds of Galloway. In Galloway these Picts remained
distinct, with separate laws and customs, probably too
with language modified after their contact with Celts
and Iro-Northmen, an almost independent race, who
fought at the Battle of the Standard, and a strong political
factor down to the fourteenth century. This forced
seclusion may account for the greater abundance of
primitive remains, weapons, and dwellings of the Neo-
lithic age in the district west of the Nith. It was among
these pagans, whose thieving habits secured for them the
opprobrious titles of " Galuvet " and u the wild men of
Galloway," that the British missionary, Ninian, laboured.
Of their tongue we appear to have survivals in the many
unexplained monosyllabic place-names descriptive of certain
permanent landmarks in the shire.
After the removal of the Roman arms, the British,
or Kymry (hence Cumbria, Cumberland, Cummertrees)
spread over Southern Caledonia, and were piously ministered
to by British missionaries whose churches were dedicated
to Martin, Ninian, Blaan, and Mungo — foundations still
existing. Holding their lands in Dunscore from time
immemorial, the family of Welsh, the last of whom there
was Jane Welsh Carlyle who possessed Craigenputtock,
may well have sprung from that early British race. Their
language survives everywhere in relation to prominent
objects described by caer, I'm, pen, cors, craig, alt, man, tre,
ros and other terms. Their " caer," or fort, is much in
evidence. Many families, long bound to the soil here,
64
DUMFRIESSHIRE
and named Karrs or Kerrs, Carsons, Carruthers, Carlyles
or Carls, Crechtons, Kirkpatricks, locally known as Caer-
patricks, may be the descendants of the early holders of
the forts.
In turn the Briton or Welshman was overrun by two
streams of Celts, one coming direct from Ireland and
Craigenputtock : Carlyle's House
another circuitously descending out of north-west Strath-
clyde. It may be suspected that they found traces of
a primitive people like themselves, with a similar if not
an identical tongue. Their teachers brought the cult of
Patrick, Bridget and Michael to churches named after
these patron saints. If the conquest of the Gael was not
PEOPLE— RACE, TYPE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 65
complete their fixture of place-names was, so that this
area might still find a place in the Highlands, so prevalent
are the auchens, bens, glens, duns, drums, bracks, minnys and
carries. Families too are proud of old, not imported, clan-
names — for the clan system survived to the fifteenth
century. MacRory, MacMath, MacCubbin, Mac-
Gowan, MacCririclc, MacDouall, MacDougal (Dubhgall),
MacLachlan (Lochlan), MacCulloch, MacMurdo, Ma-
gachan, MacEwan, Kelloclc (Ceallach), MacMichael,
MacMillan, Macglethery (i.e. MacGregor) are local
names of people, some of whom had chieftains, or feudal
lords to own and protect.
A charter of the twelfth century, given by Radnulf,
son of Dunegal, at " Dronfres," was witnessed by " Gil-
christ, son of Brun, Glendonrut Bretnach, Gilcomgal
Macgilblaan, Udard, son of Uttu, Walder son of Gil-
christ." Here we see the vassals or friends of Nithsdale's
great over-lord drawn from all the races, from the ab-
original to the Teuton and Norman. " Gilcomgal Mac-
gil-blaan," that is, the servant of the monastery — the
son of the servant of (Saint) Blaan, is a most interesting
reminiscence of the Celtic monastic cell of Saint Blaan
in Caerlaverock parish, and a reminder of an ecclesiastical
descent. Brun, Blain, and Gilchrist are still family names
in the shire.
Thus the fusions went on. For a time Dumfriesians,
like the Swiss of some cantons, may have been trilingual.
The mixed population next met invading English, Danish,
and Viking Northmen. A notable instance of the heroic
racial spirit is recorded regarding a British leader, named
H. D. 5
66 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Constantine, who fell at Lochmaben, in 879, in a gallant
attempt to lead his countrymen to the aid of the Mother-
land in Wales. The earlier Scandinavian emigrants, who
crossed the seas to settle in eastern England, in course of
time found their way across Northumbria to the Celtic
region of Dumfries, where they left traces in numerous
place-names, and, probably later, in the runes on Ruth-
well Cross. Everywhere one finds localities distinguished
by Anglo-Danish words bearing on their composition —
-dale, -garth, -wald, -myre, -haugh, -clench, -shaw, -burn,
-water, -holm and many others.
The coming of the Northmen round the west coasts,
in viking expeditions, finally to settle in Cumberland,
Dumfries and Galloway as farmers, had a modifying
effect upon the tongue of the earlier Scandinavian and
Danish conquerors, of which there are manifest traces on
both sides of the Borders. The residence of the North-
man is remembered in Arkland (ergh, a sheiling), Hartfell
(fell, a hill), Waterbeck (beck, a stream), South Grain Pike
(grain, a tributary brook), Middlebie and Lockerbie (hie,
a farm), Murraythwaite (thwalte, a clearing, or old pasture
land), Burnside and Burnhead (stetr, a pasture, and hefd,
a head), The Rigg, The Riddings, and many another
place. Indeed when the modern farmers in these places
speak of the elding (fuel), rice-fence (hris), the sile or siler
(sill, a sieve), the handsel (handsol, a bargain), a gowpen-
full (gaupn, both hands fuH), a quey (kviga, a young
cow) ; and when the poachers of the hopes, sikes and gills
of Eskdale refer to the " leister " (Ijostr) or " waster,"
with its witters — barbs — and the " roughies," or dry
PEOPLE— RACE, TYPE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 67
branches which light " the burned water," they are using
the nomenclature of their predecessors there — the North-
men, farmers and hunters. Of a Frisian settlement in
Dumfries, which by some is supposed to mean " the fort
of the Frisians," there is no trace, and no record. To
what extent the residence of the Northmen and the
infusion of Norse blood changed the native population
and the vernacular we have little evidence. One church,
at least, bears a Northman's name, Closeburn (Kil,
Osbiorn). The influence of the Anglian may be trace-
able in that similarity to modern German pronunciation,
both consonantal and vocalic, which distinguishes the
Dumfriesian's expressions, and also in the longer persist-
ence in the vernacular of words which come with greater
fluency from Border lips, such as, yird, nowt, gang, gate^
byre^ muck, scart, scoot and others equally definitive.
The introduction of Anglo-Norman settlers in Cum-
bria by Prince David for a time affected local blood and
speech to a slight degree. Of the old family names —
Mundells, Mounceys, Menzies, Bruns, Herries — few
survive. A century ago, in the old English tongue,
which the rural Dumfriesian spoke, there were survivals
from the Anglo-Normans in terms in common use, such
as dule, gabbe, poke, pooche, tache^ palmie, sort, and the like,
which were just as likely to have survived from feudal
times as to have been imported in the era of the later
Stewart monarchs.
The development of railway travelling, by which the
people can so easily shift their habitations, has markedly
affected the stratification of the languages preserved in the
5—2
PEOPLE— RACE, TYPE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 69
local vernacular, and even the broader accent is on the
wane. Still on the Borders there is a dialect somewhat
different from those observed in Cumberland and North-
umberland. In Annandale, words ending in ee or ea are
pronounced ei, or eye-ee : oo is pronounced ow : ue or ew
becomes e-yu ; true being pronounced tre-yu. The personal
pronoun / is pronounced aw. I am going becomes Am
gawn. ril make sure, becomes A's mak sure, as anciently
it was 4's, or Fs, mak siccar. Short o is generally pro-
nounced long, so that a rod becomes a road, and vice versa.
The letter a is often shortened to permit a more liquid
sound to follow the letter /, thus awl becomes d-ll. A
curious iteration is noticeable in Hoddom, where the
words, give it to me, become gae me tit. In Lockerbie
a couplet runs:
Yow an' meyee, an' the bern dor keyee,
The sow an' the threyee weyee pigs."
In Canonbie the pronoun thou is pronounced ta ; is is
used for both art and are. " Is ta gawn tae Kerle ? "
(Carlisle) is answered affirmatively u I is."
The peculiarities in the dialect of Nithsdale are fast
dying out. One still hears the following exchanges :
A* m (I am), eer (you are, thou art), hay's, he eyees (he is),
oo r (we are), y'ir and ee*r (you are), tha'r (they are), was
(was), wur (were), hes (has), micht (might), cud (could),
wud or wad (would), sud (should), wull (will), man (must),
-In and -an (-ing), u for / (budden for bidden). A good
specimen of the Nithsdale patois is the following : " Can
ye gie's a wee puckle o' 'oo to stap i' the nebs o' ma
shoon, for they're unco shauchly and they'll coup me
70 DUMFRIESSHIRE
owre i' the glaur ? " — " Can you give me a small particle
of wool to stuff in the points of my shoes, because they
are very capsizeable and they will turn me over in the
mud ? "
In 1901 the population of Scotland was 4,472,043,
of whom 72,571, or one sixty-seventh part, resided in
Dumfriesshire, there being 34,362 males and 38,209
females, or 67 persons to every square mile. Dumfries-
shire was thus fourteenth of the counties for numbers
of inhabitants. In 1911 the population of Scotland had
increased to 4,759,445 persons, and that of this county
to 72,824 persons. The inhabitants of the county now
form one sixty-fifth part of the entire population, and in
regard to their other relations stand precisely the same as
before. In 1881 the population of the county was 76,140;
in 1851, 78,057; and in 1801, 54,597.
12. Agriculture.
After the cessation of the wars with England, the
Scottish Borderers devoted themselves assiduously to
tillage and the rearing of cattle and sheep. Great
impetus was given to agriculture in the end of the
eighteenth century through new methods introduced by
Sir James Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, and his successors
the Stuart-Menteiths, by Douglas of Kelhead, and
Patrick Miller of Dalswinton and others, who converted
poor lands into show estates by improved drainage and
the advantageous use of lime. In Middle Nithsdale farmers
AGRICULTURE 71
secured a good financial position on the transference of
the Queensberry estates to the House of Buccleuch, when
the latter for compensation set aside the long leases
granted by the Douglases, and in years of great com-
mercial prosperity beautified and improved all the hold-
ings. The troublesome system of commonty in course
of time died out.
The present importance of the farming industry may
be appraised on consideration of the fact that there are
2692 holdings upon an available land surface of 664,119
acres, of which only 30,275 acres are occupied by woods.
Besides these acres 26,175 acres of foreshore and tidal
water remain. Of the 2692 holdings, 497 are under
5 acres, 882 under 50 acres, 1146 under 300 acres, and
167 over 300 acres. The land is thus portioned out:
382,112 acres of mountain and heath-land used for
grazing; 118,733 acres °f permanent grass; 134,486
acres of arable soil ; 30,275 acres of woodland. The
valuation of the county is ^450,062, exclusive of rail-
way8 £42,546.
Tenants occupy 223,710 acres laid down in grass and
crops, and owners retain 29,509 acres. Of these fields
39,349 acres produce 20,054 tons °f na7 fr°m permanent
grass, and 17,715 tons from clover, sanfoin and other
sown grasses. Oats cover 41,333 acres and yield
189,299 quarters, or an average of 36*64 bushels to the
acre ; barley takes up 590 acres, and yields 2751 quarters,
or an average of 37*31 ; wheat is grown on 65 acres, and
produces 320 quarters, or 39 on an average, commanding
a good price. Rye is grown on 17 acres.
72 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Large tracts are required for turnips and swedes,
17,280 acres yielding 305,931 tons of these roots ; 3450
acres produce 25,543 tons °^ potatoes ; and 305 acres
produce 4824 tons of mangold.
Among other products are beans 14 acres, peas 4,
carrots 34, onions i, cabbage 226, and rape 304 acres.
No flax is grown. There are many sheltered and sunny
patches suitable for fruit growing, but this industry has
not become popular. Apples grow on 2 if acres, pears
on 2j, cherries on if, plums on 2j, and there are 38 J of
mixed orchards. Strawberries are grown on 28 acres,
raspberries on 5f , currants and gooseberries on 20 J, and
there are 23 J acres of mixed small fruit.
The work of this vast region employs 5878 horses
including brood mares, and 1868 young horses await
breaking in. Of 62,359 cattle upon the fields, 21,628
are cows and heifers, and 40,731 are calves and older
cattle. 556,988 is the grand total of the fleecy flock, of
which 243,369 are ewes kept for stock, and 227,506
lambs. Of 8546 pigs, 1096 are breeding sows. Of the
6517 men and 1393 women employed in agriculture in
1901, 3644 were farm servants. The latter number was
a decrease of 1211 men since 1881.
The distribution of the various breeds of sheep in the
county is interesting, 140,000 cheviots being kept for
breeding on the green hills of the districts round Lang-
holm, Lockerbie, Moffat, Closeburn, and Sanquhar.
Blackfaced sheep to the number of 100,000 are kept on
the high uplands and heathery hills of the north and west.
Small flocks of Leicesters and Yorkshires, numbering
AGRICULTURE 73
about 2000, graze on farms around Dumfries, Lockerbie
and Moffat. Crossbreds, Oxfords, Suffolks and Shrop-
shires, 2000 in all, are seen on good farms near the
Solway. The South Down, Dorset and Spanish breeds
are also represented in small numbers. In all 244,000
ewes form the breeding stock of the sheep-masters in
Dumfries.
The cattle trade is to the farmer a matter of first
importance, and sales of live-stock are periodically held in
Dumfries, Annan, Langholm, Lockerbie, Thornhill and
Carlisle. The following are the numbers annually dis-
posed of in the auction marts of one firm : Langholm
(fat and store stock), cattle 600, sheep 12,000 ; Dumfries
(fat stock), cattle 2500, sheep 25,000 ; Lockerbie (fat and
store stock), cattle 2700, sheep 120,000. In addition
noo pigs and 1500 calves are sold. At Annan, the
numbers of live stock sold are increasing year by year.
A speciality is the sale of short-horn bulls, 900 being
disposed of at special spring auctions. Many store cattle
are sold in May and June, and 10,000 lambs after
Lammas.
At the mart, Thornhill station, during the past five
years, the average sales have been 1278 cattle, 41,029
sheep, 64 calves, and 91 pigs, of the value of £43,239
annually. In 1907 nearly £50,000 worth of live-stock
was sold here.
The White Sands of Dumfries have for generations
been famous for the sales of horses and other live-stock.
Seed markets are also held in Lockerbie, Annan and
Dumfries in the spring.
AGRICULTURE 75
The 30,275 acres devoted to timber growing produce
a considerable tonnage of both soft and hard wood, which
is required for props in pits, fences, cart-building, and
various other industries.
13. Industries and Manufactures.
The volume and value of the industries, trades, and
manufactures of the county may be calculated from the
number of persons employed in the various branches of
activity. In 1901 agriculture employed 7910 workers
and domestic service required 4935 persons of whom
4053 were women. Building required 2158 hands,
besides workers in quarries 1412, 213 men preparing
wood, and 90 brick makers. The latter number includes
tile makers. Metal workers numbered 1 182, and workers
in precious metals 115.
The textile industries employed 885 men and 1065
women : 802 men and 1488 women were engaged in
s o O
making into dress these as well as imported goods, while
239 drapers sold them. Commerce connected with this
and other industries was carried on by 585 persons who
required 2128 carriers and transport agents. Skinners
and tanners numbered 116 ; stationers and other workers
with paper were 192 ; workers in chemicals numbered
75, and there were 1637 general dealers. No fewer than
1990 men and women were engaged catering for the
others ; and 1220 professional men and women — teachers,
doctors, lawyers etc., and 359 public servants looked after
76 DUMFRIESSHIRE
the education, health, and peace of the community. Over
5000 males and 20,000 females of working age had no
specified employment.
The great sales of sheep and cattle at Dumfries,
Annan, Lockerbie, Langholm and Thornhill, and the
disposal of the various cereals, are productive of work and
wealth. Nurseries for trees, shrubs, and flowers around
Dumfries and Annan afford labour for many hands. The
shire is not an industrial and manufacturing centre, al-
though certain industries continue to thrive in it. The
extensive sandstone quarries of Gatelawbridge, Closeburn,
Locharbriggs, Annanlea, Cove, Corncockle, Corsehill and
others, which formerly had a large export trade, have
recently decreased their output ; and the limestone
quarries at Closeburn, Barjarg and Kelhead have not
been so active as formerly. The mining industry in
Kirkconnel is increasing. Lead working in Wanlockhead
still flourishes.
A new industry has been recently started on Ironhirst
Moss, part of the great Lochar Moss belt, for the utilisation
of the peat, which is converted into compressed peat blocks
and into sulphate of ammonia, under new processes.
Large numbers of the inhabitants of Dumfries town
are engaged in various mills and works on both sides of
the river, wherein cereals are ground, and yarns spun and
woven into tweeds, gloves, hosiery and other articles for
wearing. Dumfries tweeds, gloves, and silk underclothing
have a high reputation in the market, and demand for them
is on the increase. Tan works still exist. Forges for
the production of agricultural implements and engineering
INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 77
shops employ considerable numbers of mechanics. To
carriage building, for which the town was well known,
motor-building has been added ; while the making of
jams and confectionery, dyeing and laundrying give
employment to many hands. Being the chief emporium
for a large agricultural area, Dumfries is busy in the
transaction of all kinds of commerce, and is abundantly
supplied with merchants in places of business supplying
the needs of a practical community. The shipping
industry in the Nith has become attenuated.
Annan, near the centre of a large agricultural district,
is similarly busy, having engineering works, the famous
mills for making " Provost Oats," some shipping trade,
distilling " Johnie Walker " whiskey in the Annandale
distillery, brickworks, nurseries, fisheries, and cattle
markets.
In Eaglesfield village 70 persons find employment in
tailoring. Langholm is noted for its six tweed-mills,
wherein 660 male and female workers are engaged. A
tannery employs 30 hands. Glen Tarras Distillery and
Langholm Distillery, at present not working, afforded
labour for others in Langholm.
At Sanquhar, in place of the thriving weaving industry
which has disappeared, there are terra-cotta brick working,
brick and tile making, coal-mining, a little sandstone
quarrying and laundry work — all, however, on an incon-
siderable scale.
A most important industry has sprung up in recent
years in Thornhill — the bacon factory, giving employ-
ment to 50 hands. The latest modern plant has been set
78 DUMFRIESSHIRE
down to overtake the conversion of above 15,000 pigs per
annum into bacon, sausages, cooked hams, and all kinds
of table delicacies such as glass-meats, braised tongues,
pork-pies and other tid-bits. Under steam pressure the
bones are made to yield edible fat, and the residuum is
used for manure. There is also a bacon curing establish-
ment in Sanquhar.
The amount of printing done within the shire is very
considerable in the production of books, the local news-
papers, and in the execution of contracts from without.
Large numbers of men and boys are employed in the
extensive woodlands of the county, both planting and
cutting down the ripened trees. Several estate saw-mills
are employed for local requirements, but large quantities
of hard and soft timber are exported to mining centres
and to districts manufacturing articles out of wood.
In 1897 t^le Charity Organisation Society of Glasgow
leased Mid Locharwoods, a farm of nearly 500 acres in
Ruthwell parish, as a labour colony for providing work
for the destitute unemployed, and for the reclaiming of
Lochar Moss. The number of employees fluctuates.
The directors have recently purchased the farm.
14. Mines and Minerals.
Coal, lead ore, zinc ore, silver, limestone, igneous
rocks and clay are mined and quarried in the county.
The output, however, is limited. Coal is worked in
two areas only — in Upper Nithsdale at Sanquhar and
MINES AND MINERALS 79
Kirkconnel, and in Canonbie at the Old Colliery and
Blinkbonny. The Sanquhar-Kirkconnel coalfield (which,
as the chapter on Geology indicates, is a continuation of
the Ayrshire field) with its three pits employs (1911) about
850 men and boys, raising about 300,000 tons of coal
annually. A recent return (1907) showed an output of
245,624 tons, valued at £99,273, or 85. id. per ton,
raised by 437 hands under ground and 121 above, in all
558. The recent sinking of new shafts in Kirkconnel
has increased these numbers. The latest return (1910)
shows an output of 279,912 tons of coal, of value £87,473,
or 6s. 3^. per ton, raised by 811 hands of whom 676 were
employed in Dumfriesshire. The return includes the
work of 135 men in the small Argyll coalfield.
The Canonbie coalfield is small but rich, and pro-
duces 18,000 tons annually, 105 men and boys finding
employment in it.
Only one metalliferous mine is at work in the county,
that at Wanlockhead, belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch
and adjoining the well-known mines at Leadhill. Here
1 06 persons are employed above ground and 47 below.
The output for 1909 was 1783 tons of lead ore and
107 tons of zinc ore. The output for 1910 was
2500 tons of lead ore, and the number of men employed
250. One hundred years ago 118 men were employed,
producing 874 tons of lead, worth £5000.
Silver to the extent of 12,500 ounces was extracted in
1910: in 1909, 8915 ounces. The total value of the
dressed lead ore and silver in 1909 was £22,000.
An antimony mine was opened in 1 760 at Glendinning,
80 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Westerkirk, and before 1798 had produced 100 tons of the
regulus of antimony worth £8400. Working stopped
about 20 years ago.
There are 22 quarries employing 224 inside and
362 outside, and their output is as follows : igneous rock,
8156; clay, marl, brick-earth, shale, 7781; granite,
2692; limestone, 17,096; sandstone, 90,104; in all
125,829 tons. The values of these products were :
igneous rock, including granite, £1274; clay, £341;
limestone, £1109; sandstone, £38,868. This shows
a considerable decrease from the output of former years.
The new-red-sandstone quarries of the county are famous
for stone suitable and easily wrought for building purposes
and monuments locally, and in request in cities on account
of weathering qualities when in contact with smoke and
other deleterious elements in the atmosphere. The most
notable of these quarries are Closeburn, Gatelawbridge,
Locharbriggs, Corsehill, Cove and Corncockle.
The extensive new-red-sandstone quarries in Closeburn
parish, which in 1903 produced 68,000 tons of excellent
building stone, suitable for sculpture with a fine finish,
and employed 250 men, in 1910 put out 21,000 tons at
the hands of 60 men. The extensive lime quarries at
Kelhead, Cummertrees, at present employ 19 men with
an output of about 4000 tons of lime.
No coal is exported by ship from Dumfriesshire, but
4098 tons of coke are imported coastwise. 6094 tons
of coke of the value of £3253 are manufactured in the
shire.
FISHERIES 81
15. Fisheries.
The Solway Firth from time immemorial has been
famous for its fish, which remunerated the monks of
Melrose and of Holme Cultram, and graced the royal
table from the time of the Bruce onward. The Solway
fisheries have often occupied the attention of the legislature
and High Courts, while several Royal Commissions have
investigated the area, statutes, fish, nets, and other matters
relative to the Solway.
There are two distinct classes of fishing in Solway —
the white and the red (or salmon). The white fish taken
are cod, flounders, herring ; the red are salmon, trout,
herling, sparling, and shrimps. The interests of the two
classes of fishers often conflict on account of the ancient
peculiar privilege of the fishers of white fish, who, by an
Act of Queen Mary, were permitted to use fixed engines
— a custom illegal elsewhere and on the English side of
the Firth.
The nets used locally are of peculiar construction.
" Paidle " nets, used for catching white fish, are fixed
engines similar to salmon-, stake-, and bag-nets, but on a
smaller scale. In the Annan fishery district there are
10 "white fish nets," haying 24 pockets: in the Firth
district 66 with 66 pockets. Halve- or haaf-nets are a
kind of bag-net, 14 feet long, with three perpendicular
rods under them, one at each end, and one in the middle,
to keep down the net. These nets are held by men in
the current of the ebbing or flowing tide. The " halvers,"
or fishers of Annan, claim the right to use these under a
H. D. 6
82 DUMFRIESSHIRE
charter granted in 1538. "Poke-nets" are about a yard
square at the mouth in form of an open bag, and are
suspended between stakes from 6 to 7 feet long, which
are fixed about half-way into the sand at a distance of
4 feet from each other. "Stake-" or "trap-nets,"
invented by John Little of Newbie, are nets of one or
more compartments, enclosed with netting, supported by
stakes, from 5 to 15 feet high or upwards, driven into the
sand or beach, and with netting for their roof. They
have doors which open with the inflowing tide and are
effectually closed by the returning current. Two long
leaders guide the fish into these traps. The Special
Commissioners of the Solway in 1881 granted to four
maritime proprietors and to the Burgh of Annan the
privilege of using stake-, fly-, and bag-nets to the number
of 34 engines and 126 pockets. Poke-nets to the number
of 600 " clouts " and 2200 pockets were allowed to three
maritime proprietors and to the Burgh of Annan.
" VVhammelling " is a method of fishing on the
Solway introduced in 1855 by two fishermen named
Woodman, whereby fish are caught in a long net, 600 to
800 yards long. One end of the net, weighted on the
under side and attached to a loaded pole which remains
upright, is thrown from the stern of a boat moving across
the tide and paying out all the net till it extends across
the channel. The upper part of the net floats free with
the tide, and in the meshes of the net the fish are caught.
About 50 boats leave Seafield, Annan, and other places
to " whammle " for salmon, " draw " for trout, " trawl "
for shrimps, and " beam-trawl " for flat fish.
FISHERIES 83
Another method of fishing practised at Lochmaben on
the Annan is called " cross-line-fishing." The line is
stretched between two fishers, one on each bank ; from
the line drop several smaller baited lines called " eeks."
In 1840, in the Dumfries and Stranraer district,
84 boats and 430 fishers were employed; and 1665
barrels of herring were cured. In 1901 only 169 men
and i woman were registered deep-sea fishers. The
Fishery Return (1910) shows that at present there exists
at Carsethorn I boat under 30 feet and over 18 feet,
employing 18 fishermen and boys; at Caerlaverock
20 fishermen and boys; at Powfoot 13; at Annan
6 boats over 18 feet and 10 tons, and I under 18 feet
of I ton. No new boat was constructed in the district
in 1909.
The quantity of fish, especially flounders, taken
between Kirkcudbright and Powfoot, was 1084 cwts.,
valued at £604 ; and mussels £i%J> At Annan 2 1 08 cwts.,
valued at £2717, were taken ; and ^2704 were obtained
for shell-fish, being an increase of .£1000 on this fishing.
There was a decrease of shrimps, however. The weight
of fish borne by rail was from Annan 265 tons, Dumfries
n, Dornock 6, Cummertrees 3 — in all 285 tons. Forty
tons left Kirkcudbright. Half the income of the Annan
fishermen was from shrimps : there was a short catch of
lobsters. Crabs and oysters increase, and half the value
of shell-fish is from oysters.
The salmon fisheries for the Solway district are valued
as follows: Annan ^2917, Dee (Solway) £1231, Nith
.£506. These sums show a decrease on former years.
6—2
84 DUMFRIESSHIRE
For the salmon, which ascends to the extreme limits of the
county, the close time for netting is from loth September
to 24th February. The close time for angling is from
1 3th November to 24th February. In Hoddom Waters
salmon are caught with stake-nets and poke-nets. In
Annan there are fixed engines, but no sweep-nets, while
rod and line are in use. In the Newbie fishings the stake-
net is used. In the Nith fixed engines, sweep-net, rod
and line are used. Sea-trout appears in March, and grilse
early in June in the Annan and the Nith. The heaviest
salmon taken in Annan in 1910 was 38 Ibs., and in Nith
30 Ibs.
Few counties possess such facilities as Dumfriesshire
for angling, and at small cost. Annan river contains
salmon, trout, pike, perch, roach, chub, eel, sea-trout,
grilse, and herling ; Nith, salmon, sea-trout, grayling, and
trout ; Esk, salmon, grilse, herling, sea-trout, and trout ;
the Cairn, salmon, sea-trout, and yellow trout. The
streams all have river-trout, some have sea-trout and
salmon. Keen fishers abound, and their interests are looked
after by the following associations : Dumfries and Max-
welltown Angling Association, Dumfries and Galloway
Angling Promotion and Protection Club, Esk and Liddel
Fisheries Association, Mid Nithsdale Angling Association,
Upper Nithsdale Angling Association.
SHIPPING AND TRADE 85
16. Shipping and Trade.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Dumfries
and Annan were important sea-ports, doing a large home
and foreign trade. To-day that commerce is at a mini-
mum as far as water-ways are concerned. In 1809 ships
registered at the Port of Dumfries, that is from Gretna to
Kirkcudbright, numbered inward bound 493, with tonnage
18,985, and men 802. In 1835 there were 192 ships
with 11,798 tonnage and 779 men. In 1894 there was
a temporary revival of import and export trade ; but in
1909 the ships recorded are six British inward with
641 tons, and three foreign of 506, together with
15 sailing-ships with 837 tons, and two steam-ships of
58 tons registered. The total outwards was nil.
Both Dumfries and Annan formerly had a large
foreign trade with America and the Continent. A
writer in 1811 states that the imports of Annan were
coal, lime, slate, timber, herrings, salt, West India
produce and English goods discharged from 200 vessels,
while 40 vessels exported grain, malt, potatoes, bacon,
freestone and wood. Sixteen vessels averaging 40 tons
each belonged to Annan. Formerly Annan had a large
import wine-trade, while ship-building and rope-making
were successful industries.
Relying on this large and increasing trade, the
authorities at much expense, under Act of Parliament,
had the navigation of the Nith improved and three good
quays provided within six miles of Dumfries, where
86 DUMFRIESSHIRE
80 vessels belonging to the local port loaded and discharged
in 1841. A steam-boat also plied regularly from Glencaple
to Liverpool with passengers, bestial, and goods. Glencaple
in 1840 boasted of a ship-building yard where two vessels
of over 60 tons burden were built annually. But the
advent of the railroad destroyed all this local business,
timber, goods and cattle being transferred to the railway ;
while a new wet dock at Silloth was taken advantage of
by ship-masters.
17. History of the County.
The history of this region is a narrative of strife,
battery and bloodshed. The marvel is that any residue
of life remained in that gory arena. Historical memorials
— the camps at Birrens, Birrenswark, and other places,
the inscribed stones found in these camps — remain to
prove the Roman conquest. On the withdrawal of the
Romans a mist falls upon the doings of the warring tribes,
Selgovae and Novantae north of the Solway, and the
Brigantes south of it. The district again emerges into
recorded fame when, in 573, Rydderch Hael, Christian
King of Strathclyde, defeated the pagan Welshman,
Gwenddoleu, at Arderydd on the English bank of the
Esk.
At Dawstone, in 603, King Aidan was defeated by
Ethelfrid. Successive religious waves passed over this
region. In the fifth century Ninian and his British
school planted the cross here. In the sixth century
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY
87
St Mungo (Kentigern), still remembered in a parish of
that name, fixed his see in Hoddom ; and a century later
St Cuthbert, whose name is preserved in local place-
names, confirmed the evangelisation of Cumbria, then
and long afterwards a part of England, which the Scoto-
Statuette of Brigantia, found at Birrens
Irish missionaries also visited. The incidents of the racial
wars between Picts, Britons, Gaels, and Norsemen are
very sparsely recorded. Arthurian legends are by some
associated with the Head of the " Wood of Celydon " in
Holywood.
88 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Of the intrusion of the English into Strathclyde,
among the Iro-Scottish conquerors there, of the descent
of Norse vikings, Iro-Northmen (Dubhgalls), and the
ultimate suffusion of Anglo-Saxons, Danes and North-
men among the blended British and Gaelic population,
with the result in the rise of the English speaking com-
munity, we have little definite information. Halfdan, the
Dane, overran this territory in 875, which the Northmen
made into a pleasant colony with Tinwald (Thingvellir)
for their local capital. The English King, Athelstan, in
937 inflicted a terrible defeat upon Anlaf, King of Ireland,
and a strong combination of Scots, Welsh, and Irish,
at Brunanburh. Five Kings, seven Jarls, a son of
Constantine, and two brothers of Athelstan bit the dust
there. According to one competent authority, this
victory was won near Birrenswark. The magnificent
rune-inscribed High Cross at Ruthwell, if not a witness
of that battle and sea-flight, may have been its piously
founded memorial. In 945 King Edmund granted
Cumbria to Malcolm, King of Scotland.
William the Conqueror's sequestration and displace-
ment of the Saxon lords by Norman soldiers brought the
families of Brus, Jardihe, Comyn, Herries, Johnston, and
others into contiguity with the Borders. The sons of
the soil, if local traditions are trustworthy, were Rorys,
Welshes, MacMaths, Morras, Karls, Crechtons, Cruthers,
Graems, Griers, Ferguses, Eggers, Irvines, and others
with Celtic names. In 1107 King Edgar gave Edmund's
troublesome gift to the gallant Prince David, who, with
the help of his Anglo-Norman associates, ruled it till his
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY 89
death. For him the Scottish Borderers under Prince Henry
fought at Northallerton in 1138. David gave the See
of Glasgow jurisdiction over the shire and over part of
Galloway. When Malcolm the Maiden ceded Carlisle
to Henry II, the national boundary was shifted to the
Esk. The great ford was at Sulewath, that is sul- or sol-
vad — the mud-ford. Hence arose the name Solway Firth,
or Scotiswath or Scotwade (vadum Stoticum\ which was
also known as Tracbt Romra, or the Shore of the Strong
Tide. The land between the Esk and the Sark became
debateable, and Solway (more properly Sollome or Solane)
Moss was made English when the boundary was fixed at
the Sark in 1552.
The thirteenth century was noted for the munificent
works of Dervorgilla, widow of John Baliol, who founded
a monastery for Grey Friars in Dumfries. In the
struggle with England, 1286-1371, the Dumfriesians
had a share, their leaders oscillating in their allegiance
between the Kings, and the people bleeding for both sides.
Traditions of Wallace are still vividly narrated in folk-
story, which tells how he took the castles of Enoch and
Tibbers, and spilled Moreland's blood at " The Sax
Corses " in Kirkmichael. So is the story of Bruce's
dispatch of Comyn when Kirkpatrick did " mak siccar "
his bloody work before the altar of the Grey Friars in
Dumfries. King Edward I besieged and took Caerlave-
rock Castle in 1300, returned to England, and died
near Burgh-by-Sands as he was on his way to desolate
Dumfriesshire again. Many other Kings, down to the
time of King James VI, visited Dumfries bringing peace.
90 DUMFRIESSHIRE
But the part and lot of the Borderer was war, and
blood was ever in his wine cup. Border history largely
turns round the names of three influential families — the
Maxwells, the Douglases, and the Johnstones. Of the
supersession of the Dunegal family of Nithsdale, and of
the Edgars, their descendants, in favour of the March
family and of the Douglases of Morton and Drumlanrig,
we have charter evidence back to the fourteenth century.
When the chief of the Brus family ascended the
Scottish throne, another very masterful Border chief,
Maxwell, had long established himself at Caerlaverock,
and his family and vassals played an important part till
they were overshadowed by the Douglases, Lords of
Galloway, the Knights of Drumlanrig, and the Dukes
of Queensberry, and ousted from places of honour and
office by Johnstones and Crichtons. About 1263 we find
Sir Aymer de Maxwell Sheriff of Dumfries, and in 1409
a Maxwell becomes Steward of Annandale, and their
descendants Wardens of the West Marches. There is
not a little in the boast of the Johnstones :
"Within the bounds of Annandale, the gentle Johnstones ride,
They have been there a thousand years, and a thousand years
they'll bide."
The gallant Sir William Douglas, who married Egidia,
daughter of Robert II, in 1387, with her obtained territory
in Nithsdale. Whenever
"The doughty Douglas boun' him ride
Into England to make a prey,"
we find the men of Dumfries and Galloway at his
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY 91
back. Archibald the Grim, son of "Good Sir James,"
ruled the Marches from Thrieve Castle, and was frequently
on the war-path, as later (1400) his son Archibald, Warden
of the Marches, was against the Earl of March and
Hotspur Percy. This Douglas and Percy feud was
perennial.
A few of the more striking incidents in Border warfare
may be mentioned. In 1297 Sir Robert Clifford slew
over 300 Annandale men at Battlefield on Annan Moor,
and on a second raid in 1298 burnt Annan. In 1332
Edward Baliol was nearly captured in a fight at Annan.
In March, 1333, Sir Antony Lucy defeated and captured
the Knight of Liddesdale at the Battle of Dornock. The
Scots had their revenge when, on 23rd October, 1448,
Douglas, Earl of Ormond, with 4000 Scots met Percy
with 6000 English at Clochmabenstane, and in this battle
of the Sark routed the English, captured Percy, and slew
2000 of the foe with a loss of 600 men. Dumfries was
burned in 1415, and again in 1449.
Between the Crown and the Douglases relations had
long been strained, and at last were broken off. The
King marched against the Earl, who fled to England,
leaving his fiery brothers to fight it out and meet defeat
at the hands of another Douglas, Angus, at Arkinholm,
Langholm, on May Day, 1455. Nearly thirty years
afterwards the renegade Douglas and Albany, with 500
horse, made a raid into Scotland, and in a skirmish with
the Maxwells, Crichtons, Charterises, and other Border
families, were captured at Kirtlebank in July, 1484.
Merkland Cross marks the site where the Master of
92 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Maxwell fell after this fight, called the battle of Kirk-
connel and the battle of Lochmaben. This last Earl was
sentenced to seclusion in Lindores Abbey. The Maxwells
of Caerlaverock were advanced and became Wardens of
the Marches and Stewards of Annandale.
During the wars with England in the sixteenth
century the shire was frequently devastated. Many
Dumfriesians fell at Flodden. Lord Dacre thereafter
made Eskdale and Annandale into a waste. Recrimina-
tions with fire and sword followed on both sides of the
Border. Rival families were at feud as well. In 1529
James V marched into the county with 8000 men to
curb the Border chiefs, and hanged Johnie Armstrong
and his freebooters at Carlenrig. In 1542, in revenge for
a foray of the English, repelled by the Johnstones and
others, James V led a force of 10,000 men to the Borders.
From Birrenswark Hill, it is said, he saw his army march
across the frontier to meet a disgraceful defeat at Solway
Moss, on 24th November, 1542. The King went home
from Caerlaverock Castle to die of a broken heart.
Douglas of Drumlanrig, and the Carlyles of Brydekirk,
alone of the southern Scots, would not submit to English
domination ; and Drumlanrig was appointed the Warden.
In 1547 Wharton, the English Warden, laid low the
castle, steeple, and town of Annan as "a very noisome
neighbourhood to England."
The Reformation principles, preached in the south-
west by Knox, were welcomed by the majority in the
shire, but not by the Maxwells. Queen Mary visited the
shire several times and gathered a strong party for her
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY 93
cause ; but the Regent, in turn, came and coerced them
into submission to the protestant government. Various
political parties united to oppose the English forces under
Scrope and Sussex when, in 1570, they crossed the Borders
and laid waste Annan, Dumfries, and the country around
with fire and sword.
The feud between the Maxwells and the Johnstones
had a pitiful ending when Lord Maxwell, Warden of the
Marches, was defeated and killed at Dryfe Sands on
6th December, 1593, by the Laird of Johnstone and his
followers, whom he had been authorised to apprehend.
In 1608 Sir James Johnstone, now the Warden, met
Maxwell, the son of the slain Warden, at Tinwald in
a conference for the purpose of ending the feud peaceably.
It ended differently. Johnstone was shot by Maxwell,
who fled to the Continent. On his return he was
captured and executed in Edinburgh in 1613 for high
treason and for slaying the Warden of the Marches.
James VI several times visited Dumfries, and on the
occasion of his last visit, in August, 1617, presented a
shooting trophy to the Seven Incorporated Trades, called
The Siller Gun. It was last competed for in 1901.
In the troubles consequent upon the autocratic conduct
of Charles I, and the intrusion of Episcopacy, the Low-
lands were much concerned. The Covenant was generally
subscribed in 1638. Caerlaverock, held for the King,
was taken by the Covenanters in 1640. On the accession
of Charles II the south-west counties were so cruelly
treated by the military that in 1666 the men of the
Glenkens rose in Dairy, marched to Dumfries, seized
94 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Sir James Turner, the Commander, and marched away
with him as a hostage to Edinburgh to appeal for justice.
The royal forces, under Dalyell, met them at Rullion
Green, defeated them, and captured many for execution
and banishment. Colonel John Graham, of Claverhouse,
was appointed depute sheriff of the county in 1679 and
Caerlaverock Castle
later a justiciary judge, and hunted the Covenanters down.
Many natives of the shire were shot, executed after trial,
and exiled on account of adherence to the Covenants.
At the Cross of Sanquhar the Cameronians publicly dis-
owned Charles II in 1680, and James VII in 1685.
The Union of the Parliaments was not acceptable to
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY 95
all in the southern counties of Scotland, and the Articles
of the Union were publicly burnt at the Cross of Dumfries
by disaffected patriots. The affair of the Old Pretender
in 1715 affected only the fifth Earl of Nithsdale, who was
taken at Preston, and narrowly escaped execution through
an escape successfully carried out by his gallant wife.
"Bonnie Prince Charlie" in 1745 in his march to and
from England passed through the county, and from the
burgh of Dumfries exacted a large sum of money, as well
as many pairs of shoes for his soldiery.
The next important events are the advent to Ellisland
in 1788 of Robert Burns, and of his subsequent residence
and death in Dumfries in 1796. In 1832 cholera ravaged
the shire, and 420 persons succumbed in Dumfries. In
1843 tne Church of Scotland was dismembered ; and nine
of the parish ministers and three ministers of unendowed
churches, with a large following, threw in their lot with
the Free Church.
18. Antiquities — Prehistoric, Roman,
Celtic, Anglo=Saxon.
Many relics found in Dumfriesshire illustrate the
various stages of development through which the in-
habitants passed since
" Wild in wood the noble savage ran."
The nature of the rocks did not afford many natural
shelters for primitive man, and consequently the "finds"
96 DUMFRIESSHIRE
which tell of the pagans who used wooden and bone
implements, then rough and polished stone tools, and
last of all metallic weapons, instruments, and ornaments,
are found in fields, mosses, and cairns. The constant
turning over of the soil has made them less numerous
than in other districts. Many sites of primitive villages,
earth-forts, camps, crannogs, burial cists, and other remains
still unexplored may prove fruitful to the antiquarian.
Canoes, dug out of single trees, have been found in
Closeburn Castle Loch, Lochar Moss, and Friars Carse
Loch; and in 1911 two small canoes were found at
Lochmaben. A group of houses, called "weems," ex-
cavated by primitive folk, is seen above The Deil's Dyke,
on Townhead farm in Closeburn ; and in them burnt
hearth-stones, calcined iron, and a whorl were found.
Nearly every prominent eminence in the county has
traces of defensive works, some having concentric rings
of ditches, as at Tynron Dun (946 feet). Within the
shire there are remains of 249 such forts, more than one
half being in Annandale. Of these 14 are rectangular,
eight probably rectangular, and 206 curvilinear; and 21
regular motes are preserved. Remains of a vitrified fort
were found near Pinzarie, Tynron. On account of the
scarcity of lakes, crannogs are few ; but those on two
islands in Loch Urr, although of a later type, show two
defensive submerged gangways. In Lochmaben Castle
Loch submerged structures exist, and in Loch Skene a
small islet has the appearance of a crannog.
Cairns are very numerous. Those on the farm of
Auchencairn, Closeburn, of immense size, and associated
ANTIQUITIES 97
with the names of Wallace and Bruce, are of early con-
struction. A congeries of cairns, over 100 in number,
remains at Girharrow, Glencairn. Of stone circles, the
most perfect are the Twelve Apostles of Holywood and
the Girdlestanes of Eskdalemuir. The last of another
circle is the historic Clochmabenstane, in Gretna, already
referred to. Two rocking-stones — off the balance — are
seen at Belstane, Drumlanrig, and at Glenwhargen.
The Romans left permanent monuments of their
occupation in the Roman Road and in the Camps at
Birrenswark and Birrens in Annandale, as well as at
Overbie and in smaller outposts, of which a splendid
example is found on the Waalpath, Durisdeer. The
numerous inscribed stones found in Birrens threw a
great light on the Roman occupation and recorded that
the Second Tungrian Cohort, the First German Cohort,
u called the Nervana," and part of the Sixth Legion,
were stationed here in the second century. Portions of
the Roman Road — the magna via — which entered Scot-
land at Gretna, made for Birrens and Birrenswark, and
passed up Annandale into Lanarkshire, are still visible.
A secondary branch turned off west at Gallaberry and
traversed Nithsdale, emerging by the Waalpath (wald or
wood-path) into Crawford. A side-road passed into the
Cairn Valley. Another branch went through Eskdale
on to Trimontium — the Eildons. One of the most in-
explicable objects of antiquity is The Deil's Dyke, a deep
ditch with the earth thrown up to form a breastwork
fronting south and west. In places it is faced with stone.
It was traced by Joseph Train from Lochryan through
H. D. 7
98
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Galloway into Ayrshire. Portions of it are visible at
Cairn Hill, in Sanquhar, west of Mennock, in Dalveen,
MINERVAE
COTOTVN
GKORVM
MI.. ,
CVI PRAESTK3SL
AVSPEX' PR>ET
Altar of Minerva found at Birrens
and on the hills east of Morton Castle. On Bellybucht
Hill, Morton, and on Townhead farm, a fine stretch like
ANTIQUITIES 99
a raised beach is seen. Through Annandale it is traced
on its way to Nith or the Solway. The theory may be
hazarded that this is a rude imitation of the Roman Wall,
erected by the folk in Strathclyde, after the withdrawal
of the Roman soldiery, in order to keep the Galwegian
Picts in check.
Of motes and mote-sites one of the largest and most
interesting is that of Jarbruck, known as The Bow-butts
of Ingleston, in Glencairn. It is an oblong raised area,
2OO feet long and from 40 to 60 feet broad, and is sur-
mounted at each end by a tower of forced earth, respec-
tively 30 and 44 feet high. It has the characteristics of
a site of a Norman palisaded stronghold, or peel. Among
the many watch-hills, watch-fells, watch man's-knowes,
and bale-hills in the shire, the following are beacon-heights
noted in the fifteenth century : Trailtrow (or Repentance
Tower), Wardlaw, Trohoughton, Barlouth, Pantath,
Whytewoollen, Dowlarg, Kinnelknock, The Bleize,
Gallowhill, Watchfell (Closeburn), Cruffel (Sanquhar),
Corsincone.
Of the restricted culture of the aborginal races we have
evidence in tools from the water-worn stone up to the
mpst carefully designed and highly polished stone-axe of
greenstone. Flint arrow-tips and javelin heads, sandstone
hammers, massive pierced grey sandstone hammers, axes
of greenstone, compact sandstone, granite, claystone, and
whin are numerous. A man digging peats in Solway
Moss discovered a stone axe inserted in its handle, just
as elsewhere flint tips have been found in the original
arrow shafts. Adder stones, beads, whorls, and other
7—2
100 DUMFRIESSHIRE
objects in great variety, belonging to a primitive age, have
been found. Many querns, barley-stones or "knockers,"
and pounders still lie near old habitations.
The Bronze Age is also well illustrated by the many
weapons and ornaments found in this area. Socketed
spearheads, daggers, sword blades of all sizes, socketed
axe-heads, and other articles in bronze, in excellent
condition are preserved in museums. Bronze paterae of
a Roman type were unearthed near Friars Carse in 1790.
A magnificent bronze pot found in East Morton was per-
sonally carried off to Abbotsford by Sir Walter Scott. A
neat bronze tripod ewer was found in Glencairn, another
in Keir, and another near Bonshaw Tower. A lovely
example of bronze metal and enamel work is a bridle-bit
found near Birrenswark. A rare specimen of a beaded
collar, or neck-ring, in bronze, 6J inches in diameter, of
late Celtic type, beautiful in design and finish, was found
in Lochar Moss, lying within a gracefully shaped bronze
bowl. A fillet of thin bronze, ornamented in delicate
repousse work, and five bosses of bronze were found in the
shire. A golden collar was found in Middle Nithsdale.
Evidences of Celtic and later culture are preserved in
the few fragments of cross-shafts still remaining. The
pedestal of the baptismal font in Kirkconnel Church,
Nithsdale, is part of a Celtic cross-shaft. Portions of the
sculptured stone crosses of Closeburn, Durisdeer, Glencairn,
and Penpont are preserved in the Dr Grierson Museum,
Thornhill. A fragment of the cross of Hoddom, display-
ing a saint with a nimbus, is preserved. One of the most
important relics of antiquity is the Ruthwell Cross, dashed
ANTIQUITIES 101
into pieces in the seventeenth century, but now, since
1887, safely guarded within the parish church of Ruth well
under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act. It is
one of the few sculptured high-crosses remaining in Scot-
land. It was erected for a devotional purpose. It is a
Torque and Bowl found at Lochar Moss
free standing cross, 17 feet high. The shaft measures
10 feet 6 inches high and 3 feet i inch across the arms.
The shaft tapers from 21 inches to 13 inches in breadth
and from 18 inches to 9 inches in thickness. The stone
Ruthwell Cross
ANTIQUITIES 103
is sculptured in relief in ten panels on each side; and the
sculpture represents incidents recorded in the Old and New
Testaments. Inscriptions in incised Saxon capitals quote
texts in the Vulgate. An Anglian runic inscription on
the sides of the cross is taken from The Dream of the
Rood, which has been attributed to Cynewulf, probably
of Northumbrian origin and writing in the eighth century.
Other authorities have attributed The Dream to Caedmon,
and Stephens deciphered part of the Ruthwell runes as
"Kadmon maefaucetho," which he translated "Caedmon
made me." But, two objections have been urged to this
— first, that these words are mere jargon, belonging to no
known or possible Old English dialect ; second, these words
cannot come from the runes visible on the cross. This
remarkable object is reminiscent of the return wave of
Celtic Christianity out of England.
At a ford across the Nith at Thornhill, stands a
beautiful floriated sandstone cross of fifteenth century
work, in a good state of preservation, and only wanting
parts of the arms. It was probably a terminal or votive
cross and thus escaped the iconoclasts of the seventeenth
century. The shaft measures 9 feet 2 inches long, tapers
from 1 8 to 15 inches in breadth, and from 7 to 8 inches
in thickness. It is a panelled cross with zoomorphic and
dragonesque designs.
A later cross is that still standing in the baronial
market-place of Moniaive, and placed there by Fergusson
of Craigdarroch in 1638. On it the jougs, still preserved,
were formerly affixed. A mere fragment of the historic
Cross of Sanquhar is preserved in a United Free Church
104
DUMFRIESSHIRE
in Sanquhar. The Cross of Thornhill, comparatively
modern, is admitted to be the handsomest market-cross
in the country, and was erected about 1714 by the Duke
of Queensberry. Its high, massive, fluted column, erected
upon a massive octagonal base, approached by a series of
Boatford Cross and Nith Bridge
steps, and all cut out of the local red sandstone, is sur-
mounted by a bronze flying Pegasus.
In Kirkpatrick-Fleming parish are preserved two
crosses — one at Kirkconnel, besides the ancient church,
formed from one grey stone in the form of a Latin cross,
and standing 7 feet 4 inches high ; and another at
ANTIQUITIES
105
Merkland. The latter stands about 1 1 feet and a half high,
the shaft being 9 feet high and surmounted by a pierced
cross formed by the union of four fleur-de-lis. It is said
to mark the spot where the Master of Maxwell fell after
the defeat of Albany, in the neighbourhood, in 1484.
Thornhill Cross
The tombstones, once sculptured, of " Fair Helen " and
Adam Fleming are to be seen in Kirkconnel churchyard,
beside the Kirtle.
Roman coins of the age of Nero, Vespasian, and
Domitian were found at Broomholm in Langholm.
106 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Roman coins were got in the excavation of Birrens camp.
Hoards of coins, especially of the mints of the Edwards
of England, have been found in Durisdeer, Closeburn,
and in other parishes. Few of the Borderers' blades
which fought for Crown and Covenant escaped the search
made for them under the disarming statutes of the later
Stewart kings.
19. Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical.
Dumfriesshire is unique in this respect that there is
not preserved within it a single example of a Celtic,
British, Saxon, Norman or Medieval church, or eccle-
siastical edifice. This is one unhappy result of warfare
on the Borders. The much admired abbeys of Lincluden
and Sweetheart are just over the boundaries: no similar
ecclesiastical edifices — churches or religious houses — of
such beauty and distinction existed in the county, as far
as is known. There remain well-defined sites and foun-
dations of primitive churches indicating their smallness.
The Grey Friars monastery, Dumfries, was totally razed
and its stones utilised in local edifices and in St Michael's
church. Similarly the abbey of the White Friars at Holy-
wood (Sacrum Nemus^ Dercongal), built in 1141, as well
as a later Hospital, has disappeared save a few fragments.
A precious bell with its Latin inscription bearing that
"John Welsh, Abbot of Holy wood, caused me to be
made in 1505," still hangs in a modern belfry of the
parish church. Of Lochmaben church, an ancient bell
ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 107
said to have been the gift of King Robert Bruce, is the
only relic. Its Latin inscription, translated, runs "John
Adam made me. Hail Mary ! ' The vesper bell of
Dumfries, presented to the town in 1443 by Lord Carlyle
of Torthorwald, is now a relic in the Observatory Museum,
Maxwelltown.
A fragment of the Priory of the Canons regular of
St Augustine — founded in Canonbie by Turgot de Rosse-
dal, in the reign of David I — remains in the churchyard
there. It is a beautiful Gothic arch, being part of the
sedilia, of thirteenth century date, and forms a framework
for the monument of a former parish minister. The
English army destroyed the church and priory in 1542.
Of the early church of St Cuthbert, at Moffat, only a
part of a Gothic window with one mullion, of uncertain
date, is left. Nothing visible of the ancient church of
Sanquhar remains. The present edifice covers the foun-
dations of the older structure, which excavations in 1895
proved to have been a nave and choir, 96 feet long and
30 feet 6 inches broad. The late Marquess of Bute re-
stored to the church the effigy of a medieval ecclesiastic,
probably a Crichton, rector of Sanquhar, which was long
preserved at Friars Carse. An effigy, said to be that of
Simon de Carruthers, is seen at Mouswald : a much later
effigy lies in Morton churchyard ; and three sculptured
monuments of early date are shown in Dornock church-
yard. At Kirkbride, Durisdeer, the shattered walls of a
pre-Reformation church exist, and an early pointed win-
dow constructed of two stones. Among the debris lie
the fragments of an effigy of an ecclesiastic who bore the
Queensberry Monument, Durisdeer Church
ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 109
name of " Gabrialdus." The present parish church of
Durisdeer has a distinctive tower, church, school, and
ducal waiting-rooms, all formed out of the dark red ashlar
masonry of the obliterated castle of Durisdeer, famous in
the Wars of Independence. A similar fate befell the
"dun" of Tynron, now transferred to Tynron parish
church. The church of Durisdeer was built in the end
of the seventeenth century by the artificers who com-
pleted Drumlanrig Castle. In a mausoleum annexed to
the church an elaborate marble monument is erected to
commemorate the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry,
who died respectively in 1711 and 1709. It is reckoned
a masterpiece of Roubiliac, and the exquisite carving,
especially of lace, upon the white Carrara marble is much
admired.
The churches, built in the eighteenth century, when
there was a revival of ecclesiastical activity, are of a most
uninteresting domestic type, with the exception of St
Michael's church, Dumfries. It stands upon the site of
a very early church. The steeple was built in 1744. A
graveyard, in which Robert Burns and many distinguished
Dumfriesians are buried, surrounds the church. In the
nineteenth century many beautiful churches have been
built both in the larger towns and villages, the most
beautiful of all being the Gothic Memorial Church
erected in 1889-1898 near Dumfries, in memory of
Dr Crichton and of Mrs Crichton, founders of The
Crichton Royal Institution for the weak-minded. A
striking feature in the landscape of Moffat are the parish
church and manse, built of red Corncockle sandstone in
110
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Early English Gothic style, and finished with great chaste-
ness in 1887. Another handsome edifice in Moffat is the
United Free Church in French Gothic. Among: other
o
fine parish churches are Morton, Penpont, Closeburn,
and Greyfriars, Dumfries.
Crichton Memorial Church, Dumfries
20. Architecture — (6) Castellated.
The deficiency of Dumfriesshire in old ecclesiastical
edifices is made up for by the number of its historic
castles and towers, in ruins or in habitable use. Of
noble piles upreared to dominate the rural scene are
ARCHITECTURE— CASTELLATED 1 1 1
Drumlanrig, "The House of the Hassock," with im-
perious front watching Middle Nithsdale ; Caerlaverock,
even in ruins still mightily menacing the Solway and the
Strath of Nith ; and royal Lochmaben, holding guard of
Annandale. No structural remains belong to Saxon or
Anglo-Norman times, except fragments encased in later
buildings. Of fortresses in the thirteenth century only
three of first importance are mentioned — Morton, Dal-
swinton, and Lochmaben, and the original castles exist no
more. An almost perfect mote, overlooking the Annan,
is all that remains to tell what a strength Annari once
was.
The oft-repaired castle of Caerlaverock, with its de-
fended approaches, marsh, ditches, deep moat, high walls,
lofty and massive towers, is an example of a strong feudal
fortress. It is not Anglo-Norman. Its outer walls are
of date not later than the thirteenth century. It is an
aggregation of works of six different periods, but in one
part or another it is an historic eye-witness of the events
of six centuries and a half. On a mound, surrounded
with water in a moat 70 feet wide, this castle is built on
a triangular plan, the largest base being 171 feet and the
other two j 50 feet in length. Between two towers, which
are 26 feet in inside diameter and 40 feet high, built at
the apex of the triangle are situated the great entrance
gate, door, and drawbridge. A tower stands at each of
the other points of the triangle. A castle on a similar
plan fell to the attack of Edward I in 1300, and the pre-
sent castle, while bearing marks of reconstruction shortly
after that event, has many more additions dating from the
112 DUMFRIESSHIRE
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The castle also stood
sieges in 1312 and in 1640 (see p. 94). It was the seat
of the Maxwells, knights, lords, earls, sheriffs, stewards,
and wardens of the Marches, and is now the property of
their descendant, the Duchess of Norfolk.
The first castle of Lochmaben stood on the site now
known as the Castlehill. The second, and existing strong-
hold, is built on a peninsula covering sixteen acres running
into the Castle loch, and defended by ditches and a deep
ashlar lined moat. Access to it was got by boat rowed
into a defended ditch. In some parts it dates from before
1300. This important place stood many sieges. Edward I
took it in 1298; Bruce fled to it in 1306; De Boune held
it in 1346; Douglas took it in 1384; and James VI
stormed it in 1588. On this last occasion the office of
constable was transferred from Lord Maxwell to Johnstone
of Annandale. It was granted to John Murray in 1612,
and is now held by the Earl of Mansfield. In 1503-4
James IV repaired the castle and built the great hall.
Of simple vaulted towers, dating from the fourteenth
century, there are two good examples, in Closeburn and
Torthorwald. Closeburn Castle, formerly the seat of the
Kirkpatricks, is a massive rectangular tower, founded on
a mound in a lake now drained, and consisting of three
vaulted stories. It measures 45 feet by 34 feet 6 inches,
and rises 50 feet to the parapet. The old curiously
wrought iron "yett" (gate) still hangs opposite the old
entrance high in the wall on the first floor. The castle
is still inhabited.
Torthorwald Castle, the ancient seat of the Carlyles,
ARCHITECTURE— CASTELLATED 113
now in ruins, also stood on a mound in a marsh, defended
with a ditch. It is also an oblong vaulted hold, 56 feet
6 inches by 39 feet 2 inches, and rising 45 feet to the
apex of the highest vault.
Of keeps to which domiciliary additions were added
in the period between 1400 and 1542, mention may be
Morton Castle
made of three — Morton, Sanquhar, and Comlongon.
Morton, three miles north of Thornhill, stands on the
site of an older castle, on a steep eminence overlooking
a natural loch. Its plan is remarkable. Between two
lofty towers access was got to an irregular oblong build-
ing, whose high ashlar walls extended 92 feet till they
ended in another tower at the south-east angle. Parallel
H. D. 8
114 DUMFRIESSHIRE
to this building was another of similar character and size.
The great hall measured 93 feet by 31 feet. This massive
pile had an imposing appearance. The Celtic overlord
Dunegal and his powerful descendants had a castle here.
From them it passed through Randolph, to the crown
and to the Douglases of Nithsdale. From Sir William
Douglas of Coshogle and Morton, in 1619, it passed to
the Dukes of Queensberry and from them to the Scotts
of Buccleuch, who hold it still.
Sanquhar keep still stands in the corner of a fort
defending a courtyard into which entry is obtained from
another defended yard. The domiciliary buildings attached
to the keep occupy an eminence overlooking the Nith —
the area of the site being 167 feet by 128 feet. The
keep is a vaulted edifice measuring 23 feet square inside
and with walls 10 feet thick. The Dunegal family had
an interest in the place, and after them Rosses and
Crichtons became the barons. In 1296 William le
Tailleur was the "Warden of the new place of Senewar."
In the fifteenth century a Crichton built the keep and his
descendants enlarged it into a fortified residence. The
Earl of Dumfries disposed of the barony of Sanquhar to
the Earl of Queensberry in 1639; and his descendant,
the Duke of Buccleuch, sold the castle to the late
Marquess of Bute in 1896.
A very fine example of a fifteenth century vaulted
house is the oblong keep of Comlongon, near Ruthwell.
It measures 48 feet 10 inches by 42 feet 7 inches and rises
49 feet to the top of the battlements. The gabled rooms
above the battlements and the turret afford a picturesque
ARCHITECTURE— CASTELLATED 115
feature. The iron "yett" still bars the entrance. The
basement vault is 1 7 feet 5 inches square ; the hall
measures 29 feet 4 inches by 21 feet 2 inches, and rises
14 feet 6 inches to the roof. With other domiciliary
additions Comlongon Castle is now a residence of the
Earl of Mansfield. Cockpool, or Cokepule, Tower, an
older residence of the Murrays, stood a short way off.
Amisfield Tower is one of the most picturesque of
the later strong houses with vaulted apartments. It is an
oblong of 31 feet 6 inches by 29 feet, and has a great
hall 21 feet by 15 feet. It was the seat of the Charterises,
and bears the arms and initials, "I.C. 1600," of John
Charteris. Built in the same period are the two ruined
towers of the Johnstones, Lochwood, and Lochhouse,
near Beattock. It was the inaccessible sites of such
towers that made the Scottish king say that only a thief
in heart could have built them there. Another fortalice
of the same character with earlier foundations is Spedlins
Tower, the ancient seat of the Jardines. This massive
vaulted structure, repaired in 1605, situated over ^ve miles
north from Lockerbie, has a striking appearance with its
projecting turrets at the four corners and deserves to be
restored. Elshieshields Tower, in the neighbourhood of
Lochmaben, is inhabited.
Robgill, Woodhouse, and Bonshaw Towers stand near
each other in Kirkpatrick-Fleming. Bonshaw Tower,
the seat of the gallant Irvings, with its separate domiciliary
additions, is now inhabited. It stands on the top of a high
bank above the deep vale of the Kirtle, a short distance
back from the cliff. It consists of four floors with one
8—2
116
DUMFRIESSHIRE
room on each floor, to which a good wheel stair leads.
A fine hall, lit by four windows, measures 27 feet by
17 feet 8 inches and by 10 feet 3 inches to the ceiling.
On the lintel of this hoary tower is inscribed the motto
"Soli Deo Honor Et Gloria." It is one of the few local
castles possessed and occupied by a descendant of the
Bonshaw Tower
Johnie Armstrong's House-
Hollows Tower
original holder, and chief of a Border clan. It is the
seat of Colonel Irving.
Repentance Tower is a beacon tower, built about 1 562
by Lord Herries, Warden of the West March, on the site
of the old chapel of Trevertrold or Trailtrow, on an
eminence in a graveyard above Hoddom Castle and
ARCHITECTURE— CASTELLATED 117
overlooking the Solway Strath. The founder had "a greit
bell and the fyir pan put on it." Above the doorway is
inscribed the word "Repentence." Hoddom Castle,
another keep built by Lord Herries and altered in the
seventeenth century, when it was sold to Sir Richard
Murray, with its extensive domiciliary additions, is situated
in a fine demesne and is the residence of Mr E. J. Brook.
Hoddom Castle
All these fortified residences are put in the shade by
the magnificent pile of Drumlanrig, in whose foundations
are encased part of "The House of the Hassock," of
which the "Whig's Hole," or vault, with the iron "yett,"
remains as a nucleus for the vast superimposed domicile.
It consists of a rectangular building 146 feet by 120 feet,
118 DUMFRIESSHIRE
built round an open courtyard measuring 77 feet by 57
feet. The basement, which is the kitchen department,
is vaulted. By a double ram's-horn staircase access is
gained to a platform, resting on an arcade, and to the
doorway and porch under a central tower with its great
hall, 52 feet by 20 feet. Within there was formerly a
magnificent gallery 145 feet long, which is now curtailed.
Stapleton Towers
At each corner of the courtyard a circular stair gives
access to the various floors and roofs. The building was
begun in 1675 by William, third Earl of Queensberry,
and finished by him when Duke in 1689.
Among other fortalices in the county the following were
of note, few being still tenanted: — Auchen, Auchincass,
Barjarg, Blacket, Bogrie, Cornal, Cowhill, Dalswinton,
ARCHITECTURE— CASTELLATED 119
Dryfesdale, Eliock, Enoch, Frenchland, Friars Carse,
Glenae, Glendinning, Hollows, Holmains, Isle, Bankend
(Isle), Lag, Newbie, Raffels, Redhill, Sandy well, Stapleton,
Mouswald, Tibbers, Wallace's House, and Woodhouse.
Of recent mansions in the style of a fortalice may be
noted Lettrick in Dunscore, the home of Major-General
Tweedie.
21. Architecture — (c) Municipal and
Domestic.
The towns in the south-west of Scotland are not
sufficiently large and wealthy to permit of the erection
of any municipal or public buildings of the first rank, and
none have survived from the past. On the main street
of Sanquhar stands a very picturesque tolbooth or council-
house, presenting a high tower with a conical roof, with
pinnacles at the corners, and with a parapet resting on an
ornamental corbel table. An outside stair gives access to
a platform and from it to the tower and the chambers
annexed. The buildings are of late erection — after the
sixteenth century.
On the High Street of Dumfries the most prominent
object is the mid-steeple, town steeple, or town house, built
between 1705 and 1708, of Castledyke sandstone. The
tower is said to be modelled after that formerly in the
old college of Glasgow. On the south front the royal
arms of Scotland, a figure of St Michael treading upon
the serpent, and the standard ell, are shown sculptured.
The whole edifice has lately been repaired and decorated.
120
DUMFRIESSHIRE
The county buildings, in Buccleuch Street, consist of a
very imposing edifice, in the Scottish baronial style.
The town hall of Annan is a capacious building, of
baronial style, surmounted by a clock tower, from which
curfew is rung every night. It stands on the site of the
old castle, a short distance from the river, at the western
The Mid Steeple and High Street, Dumfries
end of High Street. Before it stands the statue of
Edward Irving.
Lockerbie has an imposing town hall, with a lofty
clock tower finished with a small spire rising above four
turrets at the angles of the parapet. It was founded in
1887 to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
ARCHITECTURE— MUNICIPAL
121
The assembly hall is very handsome. Contiguously placed
is the Carnegie Library, with its supplementary suite of
rooms for amusements.
The town hall of Langholm, in the market-place, was
the gift of the Duke of Buccleuch. Beside it stands a
Annan Town Hall!
{Showing statue of Irving)\
handsome edifice built of the white sandstone of Whita
Hill, as a public library to house the books purchased with
a bequest left by Telford the engineer. The Thomas
Hope Hospital, Langholm, is a large building, a prominent
feature of which is a central castellated tower, erected out
122
DUMFRIESSHIRE
of a bequest of Mr Hope, a native of Westerkirk, for the
treatment of the sick and the succour of the indigent.
Lochmaben town hall at the one end of the main
street and the church at the other are the two features of
the royal burgh. In a niche above the door of the town
hall is a statue to the Rev. William Graham, looking
Castlemilk
down on a white sandstone statue of King Robert" the
Bruce, placed there mainly by the exertions of Mr Graham.
The beautiful mansions of the county, many set in
charming surroundings, are a distinctive feature, and are the
residences of many landlords who take a personal interest
in all local affairs. Among the many are Cowhill,
ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 1 23
Comlongon Castle, Crawfordton, Castlemilk, Duncow,
Elshieshields, Friars Carse, Jardine Hall, Langholm Lodge,
Newtonairds, Raehills, and Stapleton Tower.
Friars Carse, Dunscore
22. Communications — Past and Pre=
sent. Roads and Railways.
In comparison with other districts this territory, since
the occupation of the Romans, has enjoyed splendid
means of communication. The great western Roman
124 DUMFRIESSHIRE
road out of Caesariensis Maxima into Valentia passed
through Carlisle on to Longtown, in Cumberland. Here
one branch went by Netherby to Liddel Moat up Eskdale
to Castle Oe'r and Raeburnfoot onward to Trimontium
or The Eildons. Another branch crossed the Sark at
Burghslacks near Gretna, passed into Kirkpatrick Fleming,
on by Birrens, through Hoddom by Lockerbie to Gallow-
berry above Lochmaben. Here the road branched to
the west towards Nithsdale, past Lochmaben, Tinwald,
Duncow, Closeburn, Thornhill, Durisdeer village to
Crawford. Smaller branches traversed Kirkmichael,
Glencairn and Tynron. The main road followed the
Annan by The Devil's Beef Tub to Crawford, where it
joined the Nithsdale branch again. Remains of this built
road are traceable and have been laid bare in many places.
After the passing of the Turnpike Act in 1777, by
which rates were leviable, great impetus was given to
road-making and bridge-building. Old thoroughfares,
which under the Act of 1686 were badly kept up by the
tenantry, were widened, drained, and fenced in, so that in
the beginning of the nineteenth century Dumfriesshire
was intersected by good mail and coach roads. Among
those then interested in road-building and navigation were
Major-General Dirom, Mr Maxwell of Springkell, Patrick
Miller of Dalswinton and Telford, the engineer. A new
turnpike road from Glasgow, leading down Evandale to
Beattock Bridge, was continued by Lochmaben and Annan
to Carlisle. Another was made through the vale of
Carron to Elvanfoot. Later still another was laid from
Moffat into Nithsdale, and one from Springkell to Kelhead.
COMMUNICATIONS 125
The main road ran from Carlisle to Dumfries, then
through Galloway to Portpatrick, so that there was every
facility for the transference of goods, transport of passengers,
and driving of cattle. Old drove-roads traversed hill and
dale in all directions, and these — such as that still visible
in Enterkin Pass, by which the soldiers of Claverhouse
took the Covenanters to Edinburgh — were suitable for
foot passengers, pack-horses, horses with sledges, and
droves. Sir Charles Stuart-Menteith introduced stone
causeways for steep gradients on his Closeburn estate, and
early in the nineteenth century plans were prepared for
an iron railway between Dumfries and the coalfield in
Sanquhar, for a canal between Dumfries and Carlisle, and
for other canals from Powfoot to Lochmaben, Dalswinton
to Caerlaverock, and from Annan to Kirkbank.
There are many passable fords on the rivers and
streams. But in 1812 there were 16 good bridges in the
county — six over Nith, five over Annan, and five over
Esk. All that can be said of the hoary bridge, which,
without documentary proof or ancient tradition, is
associated with the name of Dervorgilla as its supposed
foundress, is, that for centuries at least this historic bridge
has spanned the Nith at Dumfries, and is a memorial of
the value of the ancient highway into Galloway. The
lovely old bridge at Drumlanrig, ingeniously improved by
Charles Howitt, half a century ago, is a structure whose
history is lost in antiquity. Another substantial bridge
crosses the Nith at Boatford, near Thornhill, and, as the
inscription on its parapet bears, was built by " William
Morton, Master Mason, 1777." So early as 1560 a
126 DUMFRIESSHIRE
bridge existed in Moniaive, and in the seventeenth
century Fergusson of Craigdarroch built a bridge of one
arch over the Dalwhat, and to this another arch has been
added. Through Moniaive ran the route of the Craigen-
gillan coach, which did the journey between Dumfries
and Glasgow, by way of Carsphairn, in thirteen hours and
three quarters. Other "roaring dillies," as they were
called, plied between Carlisle and Edinburgh and Glasgow
through Nithsdale and Annandale.
A new bridge at Dumfries, founded in 1791, was
completed in 1794; another handsome bridge over the
Annan in that burgh was opened in 1826. The bridge
at Dumfries has, within recent years, been widened and
beautified at the private expense of a lady citizen, and is
now an elegant and broad viaduct. But all these roads
and bridges are insignificant compared with the massive
stone embankments, and the vast viaducts of stone and
iron required by the railways for crossing the Nith,
Annan, Carron and Cample, and especially the magnifi-
cent iron viaduct for the railroad across the Solway at
Annan.
Before the introduction of steam-traction the Nith
and the Annan, with the Solway estuary, formed a
natural waterway of first commercial importance. Large
sums of money have been expended on making these
waters navigable. There are no canals and no tramways
in the county.
By the introduction of the locomotive the system of
transport was revolutionised, and "droving" was super-
seded. The Caledonian Railway from Glasgow and
128 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Edinburgh to Carlisle was opened for traffic in 1847. ^ts
route is through rocky Evandale and down Annandale,
and it serves all the vales converging on MofFat at Beat-
tock, Lockerbie, Ecclefechan, Annan, and Gretna Green.
A short branch line connects Beattock to MofFat. At
Annan the line crosses the Solway into England. A keen
parliamentary fight occurred over the question of route
through Annandale or Nithsdale, one line at first being
considered ample from a paying standpoint.
This undertaking was soon followed by the Glasgow and
South- Western Railway, which was completed in 1850.
Its tract is through Ayrshire into Dumfriesshire at Kirk-
connel, through Sanquhar and the grand pass below it,
through Carronbridge tunnel — a thousand yards long, and
an early triumph of engineering — past the lovely woods
of Drumlanrig, down Nithsdale, past Dumfries and
Annan into Carlisle station, where the Caledonian and
North British Railways also meet. The next district
tapped was Kirkcudbright, by a branch from Dumfries to
Kirkcudbright, in 1859 — later extended to Stranraer and
Portpatrick. Another useful branch on the Caledonian
system is that connecting Dumfries and Lockerbie and
serving the districts round Locharbriggs, Amisfield, Shield-
hill, Lochmaben, and Lockerbie stations.
The North British system from Edinburgh to Carlisle
skirts the county on the south-east frontier, where, at
Riddings junction, a branch line runs north by Canonbie
and Gilnockie (for Claygate) to Langholm. Further
south from the main line at Longtown, a short branch
leads to Gretna.
COMMUNICATIONS 129
A light railway from Elvanfoot to Leadhills, built in
1901, has been extended to Wanlockhead. Another light
railway — opened in 1905 — part of the Glasgow and
South- Western system, runs up the vales of Cluden and
Cairn through Dunscore to Moniaive, and opens up these
beautiful pastoral vales.
23. Administration and Divisions-
Ancient and Modern.
The distinction which some Border land-owners claim
of still being heads of ancient families, on the tribal land
in their possession, is a relic of the primitive epoch when
chiefs ruled tribes and were a law unto themselves, and a
kind of "Jeddart Justice" prevailed. There were many
baronies in this shire in the olden time, and, indeed, the
present Queensberry Estate is composed of parts of 14
which have been purchased. In these chieftainries, or
baronies, during the troublous days before 1603, justice
was at times maintained with little deference to the feudal
law that a representative of the Crown should sit in courts
awarding the penalty of death. A clan system survived
into the fifteenth century, for we find David II appointing
a captain to the clan MacGowin, and Robert III con-
firming another officer in the office of Toshachdarrach —
Coroner of some part of Nithsdale. The separate "law
of Galloway" was another survival which held on to the
fourteenth century. William the Lyon's "Judges of
Galloway" sat in Dumfries.
H. D. 9
130 DUMFRIESSHIRE
As already stated, Cumbria had princely government
for 17 years, together with local government by Celtic
chiefs. Feudal government by steward, vice-comes or
sheriff, and bailie succeeded; and the royal justiciar per-
ambulated on circuit. In 1189 Udard of Hoddom acted
as steward of Annandale for the Bruce; in 1264-6
Eymeric de Maccuswell acted as "Vice-comes de Dum-
freis" and collected the fiscal revenues of Dumfries and
Galloway. When the Celtic maormors, or hereditary
provincial rulers, disappeared can only be surmised. From
the time of David I onward the feudal system of adminis-
tration, generally speaking, prevailed. In Edward I's
occupation of southern Scotland his vice-comes had
jurisdiction both in Dumfriesshire, as far as Eskdale, and
in Kirkcudbright. Under the Scottish kings, as shown in
Chapter I, there were three officers of the Crown having
jurisdiction in the shire of Dumfries, and this arrange-
ment continued till 1748.
Burghal law was dispensed in Dumfries from the
time of William the Lyon; in Lochmaben and Annan
from the time of King Robert the Bruce; and in
Sanquhar, the other royal burgh, from 1598, when
James VI gave the barony its charter. Burghal law
met all cases save those reserved in the four pleas of
the Crown. The magistrates had jurisdiction over all
except the King's servants in his castle, for whom a
separate court was erected.
There was also a written code of laws applicable to
residents on the Borders, drawn up in 1248-9, and
repeatedly revised by commissioners from both kingdoms.
ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 131
Wardens of the Marches — east, middle and west — were
appointed for both kingdoms, and these met, down to the
union of the Crowns, to see that these Laws of the
Marches were duly carried out.
At present (1911) the Justices of the Peace, who
have interests in the shire, from the Lord High Chancellor
downwards, are numerous. The Duke of Buccleuch,
Lord Lieutenant, and Keeper of the Rolls of the Peace,
is assisted by three deputy lieutenants (two are baronets),
by one marquis, three earls, one baron, one lord, one
master, five baronets, two knights-bachelor and over two
hundred justices, some of whom are privy-councillors, and
many holders of land in the county. Under the Terri-
torial and Reserve Forces Act, 1907, the Lord Lieutenant
is, ex-officio, president of the Territorial Association. The
total strength of the 5th K. O. S. B. (Dumfries and
Galloway Territorials) is about 900, and of the eight
companies, four are in Dumfriesshire. The 3rd King's
Own Scottish Borderers (special reserve), 520 strong, also
have their headquarters in Dumfries.
Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1889
a County Council, consisting of 38 district members and
four members representing three burghs, transact their
proper business. They meet in five districts — Dumfries,
Thornhill, Annan, Lockerbie, and Langholm — where
representatives of 40 parish councils and of four burghs
assemble when the business concerning roads and bridges
is dealt with. Under the Licensing Acts, 43 representa-
tives sit in the same districts, and Appeal Courts are held
in Dumfries and Annan.
9-2
132
DUMFRIESSHIRE
The management of the poor and of certain cemeteries
and churchyards is in the hands of 42 parish councils.
These councils superseded the parochial boards which were
instituted in 1845. The commissioners of supply, whose
duties are somewhat curtailed since the creation of county
Old Grammar School, Annan
councils, meet to appoint their representatives on the
standing joint committee, to which the police management
is entrusted. A joint committee of the county council
and of the burghs administer the acts relative to weights,
explosives, foods, and drugs.
ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 133
Among other administrative boards are the County
Road Board, the District Lunacy Board, the District
Fishery Board, Nith Navigation Commissioners, Dumfries
and Maxwelltown Waterwork Commissioners, Annan
Harbour Trust. There is a schoolboard in every parish.
Dumfries has a burgh schoolboard and a landward school-
board. There are academies for higher education in
Dumfries, Annan, Langholm, Lockerbie, Moftat, and
Wallacehall (Closeburn).
Dumfriesshire sends one member to parliament. Its
four burghs combined with Kirkcudbright also send one.
The law is dispensed by a sheriff-principal, who is
now an appellate judge, by a sheriff-substitute, and by
several honorary sheriff-substitutes. The sheriff holds
court in Dumfries and also in Annan. The constabulary
consists of 45 men and seven watchers employed for
fishery protection.
The burgh of Dumfries is divided into eight wards,
three councillors sitting for each of seven wards, and four
for the eighth ward. There is a Burgh Licensing Court
and an Appeal Court. The Town Councils of Annan
and Lockerbie consist each of a provost and 1 1 councillors.
Sanquhar, Lochmaben, and Moffat have each a provost
and eight councillors.
In early Christian times Dumfriesshire formed a part
of the extensive see of St Mungo (Kentigern), which
extended far into England — to the Rere Cross of Stane-
more. In medieval days it remained in the see of
Glasgow ; and its affairs were administered in the deaneries
Nithsdale, Annandale, and, later, of Eskdale — Nithsdale
134
DUMFRIESSHIRE
with 21 churches, nine being beyond the shire, and
Annandale with 10 churches. Some of these churches
were attached to houses in Lesmahagow, Holyrood, Fail,
Holywood, Kilwinning, Kelso, Melrose, Jedburgh, and
Town Hall, Lockerbie
Lincluden. Others were prebends and mensal churches
of Glasgow.
At the Reformation the churches were referred to
as those of Nithsdale and Annandale. The Synod of
ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 135
Dumfries is mentioned in 1591 ; the Presbytery of Dum-
fries in 1593. The Presbytery of Middlebie in 1638 is
turned into the Presbytery of Annan in 1742. Sanquhar
Presbytery, mentioned in 1607, becomes Penpont in
1638, in which year also Lochmaben appears.
Ecclesiastical business is at present transacted in the
Kirk Sessions of 43 civil parishes and five quoad sacra
parishes, within the five presbyteries of Lochmaben,
Langholm, Annan, Dumfries, and Penpont. The Appeal
Court is the Synod of Dumfries, which meets in Dumfries.
24. The Roll of Honour.
The distinguished men of Dumfriesshire have been
numerous, and the bede-roll of fame is large. The
Kindly Tenants of The Four Towns of Lochmaben have
pride in their tradition that King Robert the Bruce was
born in their castled town, which he elevated into a royal
burgh. Of the innumerable leaders of patriots who fought
and fell for national liberty between the Lowthers and
the walls of York mention need only be made of the
Maxwells, Douglases, Kirkpatricks, Crichtons, Johnstones,
Jardines, Carlyles, Graemes, Irvings, Elliots, and Arm-
strongs, and many a gallant deed will be recalled. The
Western March had in the Maxwells the doughtiest of
Wardens ; of these none is better deserving of remem-
brance than the fourth baron, Lord Maxwell, who in
1543 secured from parliament the right for the lieges
to peruse the Bible in their vernacular tongue. Many of
136 DUMFRIESSHIRE
the Douglases of Drumlanrig attained to great eminence
as soldiers and statesmen, and among these James, second
Duke of Queensberry (1662-1711), played a most im-
portant part in that critical period which ended in the
union of the parliaments. Bonshaw Tower is owned by
an Irving, chief of a redoubtable Border clan, from whom
sprang many famous men, including Edward Irving and
Washington Irving. Hector Boethius, Scottish historian
and first Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, was of
Annandale descent, being related to the family of Boys —
"Baro de Dryfesdale." "Rare Ben Jonson" was of the
stock of Annandale Johnstones. Robert Jonston, author
of the Historia rerum Britannic arum, published in Amster-
dam in 1655, hailed from Annandale.
Ballad literature has invested with a kind of glamour
Johnie Armstrong (1529) "sum tyme callit Laird of
Gilnockie," and his fearless freebooting tribe. Of nobler
stamp were "the four knights of Eskdale," born at Burn-
foot in Westerkirk. They were Sir Pulteney Malcolm
(1768-1838), admiral, who fought under Nelson, and at
St Helena guarded Napoleon, who said of him, "Ah !
there is a man !"; Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B., M.P. (1769-
1833), the Indian administrator and diplomatist, who no less
distinguished in the East by his sword than known in the
West by his pen, gave us The Political History of India,
The History of Persia, and The Life of Robert, Lord dive;
Sir Charles Malcolm (1782-1851) who saw much service
in the East and West Indies; and Sir George Malcolm
(1818-1897), who fought in Scinde, the Sikh War, Indian
Mutiny, and Abyssinia. Born also in Eskdale were
THE ROLL OF HONOUR
137
Admiral Thomas Pasley (1734-1804) who assisted Howe
to defeat the French fleet in 1794, and Sir Charles Pasley,
Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B.
R.E. Archibald Johnston, Lord Wariston (1611-1663),
one of the Covenanters who opposed Charles I and helped
138 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Alexander Henderson to frame the National Covenant,
was born in Edinburgh, but his father was James Johnston
of Beerholm, Kirkpatrick Juxta. To another Lord-
Advocate and Lord of Session, George Young, a native
of Dumfries, Scotland is indebted for the Education Act
of 1872.
One of the remarkable results of the cessation from
the tumult of Border war was the devotion with which
the once bellicose inhabitants turned to peaceful avocations
and to letters. They "beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks," so effectually that it
is not easy to obtain a genuine blade which has drawn
blood. Innumerable scholars have emerged from the
country schools of the county. According to some John
Duns Scotus took his oath and habit of St Francis in
Dumfries; and John de Sacro Bosco, a scientific writer,
hailed from Holywood. High on the long roll of literary
men is "The Admirable" Crichton, James, the son of
Robert Crichton of Eliock and Cluny, Lord-Advocate
of Scotland and Lord of Session. He was born in 1560
in Eliock House, Sanquhar. The attainments of this
prodigy — the most learned graduate of St Andrews
University, master of many languages, equally proficient
in every branch of learning, arms, and culture — are almost
incredible for a youth who was unhappily slain at Mantua
in his twenty-second year. But they have been equalled
by the marvellous attainments of another Dumfriesian,
Dr William Hastie (1841—1903), born in Wanlockhead,
Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow.
Gifted with an extraordinary memory, he not only
THE ROLL OF HONOUR
139
equalled Crichton as a linguist, but knew several oriental
tongues, discussed with exactitude history, theology,
Robert Flint
philosophy, jurisprudence, and science, and showed merit
as a poet. Of almost equal magnitude of powers, but in
140 DUMFRIESSHIRE
all respects a greater thinker and author, was Dr Robert
Flint (1838-1910), of Annandale extraction, a native of
Dumfries, minister in Aberdeen and Kilconquhar, Pro-
fessor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in
St Andrews, and Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh.
His mind was encyclopaedic. His Philosophy of History ,
Theism, Anti-theistic Theories, Agnosticism, and Socialism
are likely to remain standard works.
Of other ministers of religion, whose names are worthy
of honour, John Welch or Welsh (1570-1622), a reputed
native of Collieston, Dunscore, son-in-law of John Knox,
suffered exile in France rather than submit to the inter-
ference of James VI in Scottish Church affairs. A worthy
successor of this defender of the faith was James Renwick
(1662-1688), a native of Moniaive, educated in Edin-
burgh and Groningen, who was the last of the Hillmen
judicially executed for "Christ's Crown and Covenants"
in 1688. For being concerned in the Rescue at Enterkin
the following Covenanters from Dumfriesshire were
executed in 1684 — Thomas Harkness, Andrew Clark,
Samuel McEwen, and Thomas Wood. Other local
martyrs, buried in the shire, were — William Smith in
Tynron, John Gibson, Robert Edgar, and James Bennoch
in Glencairn, William Grierson and James Kirko in
Dumfries, Daniel Macmichael in Durisdeer, and Andrew
Hislop in Eskdalemuir. The gravestones of the Cove-
nanters were long kept in repair by "Old Mortality,"
Robert Paterson (1716-1800) who, after learning his
trade, stone-cutting, in Corncockle Quarry, leased Gate-
lawbridge Quarry. He died at Bankend, Caerlaverock.
THE ROLL OF HONOUR 141
The most gifted preacher born in the shire was
Edward Irving (1792-1834), a native of Annan, and
educated there and in Edinburgh. He became assistant
to Dr Chalmers. He befriended Carlyle. Genius, oratory,
and a majestic figure made him the most arresting person-
ality of his age. His herculean labours disturbed his
mental equilibrium and led to the expression of doctrines
incompatible with his position in the National Church,
from whose ministry he was deposed by his co-presbyters
in Annan in 1833. Dr Andrew Mitchell Thomson
(1779-1831), born in Sanquhar Manse, became minister
of St George's, Edinburgh, where he shone as a preacher,
as in the assembly he excelled as a debater and evangelical
leader. Another doctor of the same name became minister
of Broughton United Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh,
and died there in 1901. Two other contemporary
men of mark were Dr Robert Gordon (1786-1853),
a native of Glencairn, minister of the High Church,
Edinburgh, and a writer of merit ; and David Welsh
(1793-1845), born at Ericstane, Professor of Church
History in Edinburgh, one of the founders of The North
British Review and its first editor. Robert Johnston
(1807-1853), born in MofFat, found a mission field in
Madras. Dr John G. Paton, a native of Torthorwald,
spent a life of unwearied devotion amid perils as a
missionary in the New Hebrides till his death in 1907.
Of physicians not a few eminent men were born in
the county. Dr John Hutton became first physician to
King William and Queen Anne, and left handsome
bequests to his native parish of Caerlaverock. Dr James
Edward Irving
THE ROLL OF HONOUR 143
Mounsey and Dr John Rogerson became court doctors in
St Petersburg; Sir Andrew Halliday served through the
Peninsular War; and Sir William Rae, his contemporary,
became Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets. Dr
James Crichton, a native of Sanquhar, amassed a large
fortune in India, where he was physician to the Governor-
General; and after his decease his widow, Elizabeth
Grierson, a daughter of the Laird of Lag, left the money
to found The Crichton Royal Institution for Insane, in
Dumfries. Dr James Currie, born in the Manse of
Kirkpatrick-Fleming, gave the world the Life of Robert
Burns in 1800. Dr William Beattie, a native of Dalton,
wrote the life of Thomas Campbell, the poet. Dr John
Carlyle, brother of Thomas, translated Dante. Sir William
Jardine, the seventh baronet of Applegarth, distinguished
himself as a naturalist and as joint-editor of the Edinburgh
Philosophical "Journal.
Westerkirk was the birthplace of that remarkable
engineer, Thomas Telford (1757-1834), a genius largely
self-taught, whose gifts lay in overcoming engineering
difficulties and triumphing over nature, as he did in the
Menai Suspension Bridge, St Catherine's Docks, High-
land Roads, Caledonian Canal, Glasgow Bridge, and
other monuments to his merit greater than the memorial
in Westminster Abbey. Meanwhile his contemporary,
Patrick Miller, Laird of Dalswinton, assisted by Symington
and Hutchison from Wanlockhead, was experimenting in
Dalswinton Loch with a steam-boat ; and Robert Burns
crossed the Nith from Ellisland to be a passenger in it
on I4th October, 1788, along with Henry Brougham,
THE ROLL OF HONOUR 145
afterwards Lord Chancellor. George Graham (1822-1 899),
chief engineer of the Caledonian Railway, is worthy of
remembrance for his enduring work in connection with
that system. He wrote the Tourist's Guide to the system.
He drove the first passenger engine from Beattock to
Carlisle on loth September, 1847. Kirkpatrick Mac-
Millan (1813-1878), a native of Barflitt, Keir, invented
a "dandy horse" and the first gear-driven bicycle. His
smithy is at Courthill, and his burial place in the old
churchyard of Keir. William Paterson (1658-1719), a
native of Skipmyre, Tinwald, was the founder of the
Bank of England, and promoter of the Darien Expedition.
Dr Henry Duncan, parish minister of Ruthwell, in 1810
founded the Savings Bank. He is also entitled to remem-
brance as the protector of the Ruthwell Cross and the
discoverer of reptilian footprints in Corncockle sandstone.
His statue adorns the Savings Bank in Dumfries.
Many travellers have gone to arctic and tropical
regions. Sir John Richardson, M.D. (1787-1865), a
native of Dumfries, as surgeon and naturalist, accompanied
Franklin to the polar regions, and also went in search of
his lost leader. Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827), a native
of Annan, was sent to Nigeria by the British Government,
but succumbed in the tropics. More daring and more
successful were the explorations of Joseph Thomson
(1858-1895), a native of Penpont, who learned stone-
hewing in Gatelawbridge Quarry, and science in
Edinburgh University. At 19 years of age he went as
geologist and naturalist with the Geographical Society's
Expedition to Central Africa. The death of his leader
H. D. 10
146
DUMFRIESSHIRE
left the youth in charge of the expedition, which he took
and brought back without mishap. He explored Masai
Joseph Thomson
Land, Congo Land, West Africa, and Morocco, and
wrote delightful narratives of his travels. The hardships
of travel cut him off in early manhood. His monument
THE ROLL OF HONOUR 147
is erected in front of Morton School (see p. 170), where he
received most of his education. Dr James Dinwiddie
(1746-1815), a native of Tinwald, travelled through
China. James Anderson (1824-1893), a native of
Dumfries, Captain of the "Great Eastern," was knighted
for his scientific services in laying the Atlantic Cable in
1866.
Of the men of letters belonging to the county
Thomas Carlyle, that literary giant, naturally comes
first. The son of a stone-mason, he was born in 1795
at Ecclefechan, and was in 1881 laid to rest a few
yards from the Arch House, where he first saw light.
In him were concentrated all the highest qualities of that
unconquerable Border tribe which gave him his name, and
he has requited the gift with his universal fame. Another
contemporary native of Annandale, an advocate, theo-
logian, and author of some merit, bore the same name.
Dr Alexander Carlyle (1722-1805), "Jupiter Carlyle,"
was born in the Manse of Cummertrees. In Hoddom
parish was the residence of Charles Sharpe, a writer of
verses, and his better known son, Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe (1781-1851), a quaint antiquary, a redactor of
Border minstrelsy, and a friend of Sir Walter Scott.
Peter Rae (1671—1 748), a native of Dumfries, minister
of Kirkbride and Kirkconnel, the maker of an ingenious
astronomical clock, preserved in Drumlanrig Castle, is
best known as the author of a History of the Rebellion in
the year 1715.
Among other learned men who adorned the teaching
profession may be mentioned Thomas Gillespie, Closeburn,
10 — 2
148
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Principal John Hunter, Closeburn, Dr A. R. Carson,
Holywood, Dr Alexander Reid, Morton, Dr George
Thomas Carlyle
Ferguson, Tynron, and his brother Alexander. David
Irving (1778—1860), librarian of the Faculty of Advocates
THE ROLL OF HONOUR 149
and author of the Lives of the Scottish Poets, and History of
Scottish Poetry, was born in Langholm. James Hannay,
Dr Robert Carruthers, Thomas Aird, John MacDiarmid,
and William McDowall all maintained the high traditions
of literary journalism in Dumfries. Joseph Train, author
and antiquary, gathered up the traditions of the south for
transmission to Sir Walter Scott, who gave them immortal
settings in such novels as Guy Mannering, Old Mortality,
The Bride of Lammermoor, and The Abbot. One of Train's
works was The Buchanites, a biography of Mrs Elspeth
Buchan and her fanatical following, who settled at New
Cample, Closeburn, as a prelude to her intended apotheosis
at Templeland.
This incident suggests the observation that few Border
women have been placed upon the roll of fame. Minstrels
only remind us that the traveller
" May in Kirkconnel churchyard view
The grave of lovely Helen,"
and that on Maxwelton Braes, in Glencairn, "bonnie
Annie Laurie" (1682-1764) gave "her promise true."
Too numerous for mention even are all the native
poets who have sung the praises of the hills and dales of
the south, down to Alexander Anderson (1848—1909),
"Surfaceman," a native of Kirkconnel. The same parish
is the birthplace of James Hyslop (1798-1827), teacher,
and author of the beautiful poem, The Cameraman's
Dream. The Muse in Kirkconnel also touched William
Laing, as in Durisdeer it found Francis Bennoch, and in
Moniaive William Bennet. Thomas Blacklock (1721-
150 DUMFRIESSHIRE
1791), the blind poet-preacher, friend of Hume, Beattie,
and Burns, was born in Annan, educated at Edinburgh
University, and became for a time minister of Kirkcud-
bright. William Julius Mickle (1735-1788), son of the
minister of Langholm, corrector of the Clarendon Press,
Oxford, is best known as the chaste translator of the Lusiad,
author of Cumnor Hall, and reputed author of " There's
nae luck aboot the hoose." John Mayne (1759-1836),
born in Dumfries, learned printing, and became a versifier.
In his youth he wrote an interesting poem, with local
colour, entitled, The Siller Gun. He settled in London,
and became joint-editor and proprietor of The Star news-
paper. A man of genius in London, contemporary with
Mayne, was Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), a native of
Blackwood Estate, Keir, who laid aside his stone-mason's
tools for the pen of a literary man in the Capital. He
enjoyed the friendship of Scott, Hogg, and Carlyle, and
the patronage of Chantrey, the sculptor. Of his volumi-
nous writings the best known are, Remains ofNithsdale and
Galloway Song, Lives of the most eminent British Painters,
his edition of Burns, and The Songs of Scotland. His own
fine lyric, " A wet sheet and a flowing sea," indicates
the musical genius of this able writer. Nor must another
contemporary lyrist be forgotten, the Rev. Henry Scott
Riddell (1798-1870), son of a shepherd in Sorbie, Lang-
holm, who wrote the charming song Scotland yet.
The Corrie, the Kirtle, and the Milk had each a
bard — Johnstone, Graham, and Thorn — whose har-
monious verse gives evidence of taste and poetic in-
spiration.
Burns's Monument, Dumfries
152 DUMFRIESSHIRE
It is worthy of notice that many descendants of
Borderers who gallantly bore the sword in defence of
their fatherland — Douglases, Johnstones, Carlyles, Irvings
and Bells — have successfully wielded the author's pen in
praise of the charms of the shire. A noticeable feature
of their minstrelsy is the glamour with which the streams
have held these singers, as well as such poetic visitants as
Fergusson, Wordsworth, Hogg, and Walter C. Smith.
Every dale has had its devotee — Crawick its Laing,
Wanlock its Reid, Esk its Park, Dryfe its Gardiner —
happy in declaring with Bell, the minstrel of " Annan
Water, sweet and fair,"
" Steeped in boyhood's golden dream,
Magic lights and shadows,
Sing for aye, enchanted stream,
Through enchanted meadows."
Miller's Poets of Dumfriesshire is an anthology for the
shire.
But all these men of letters pale their ineffectual fires
before that of the King of Scottish Song, who has made
Dumfries the Mecca of all true poets, since the time
when Wordsworth, with his pen dipped in tears, told the
educated world that Ellisland, in Dunscore, enshrines the
memory of the farmer, and St Michael's churchyard,
Dumfries, guards the ashes of the poet — Burns.
25. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF
DUMFRIESSHIRE.
(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in
1911, and those at the end of each section are references to
the pages in the text.)
Annan (4219) is a royal burgh, within a parish (6261) of
the same name, on the river Annan. Its original charter, de-
stroyed by fire, was confirmed and renewed in 1538 and 1612.
Its mote, castle, and fortified steeple played a great part in Border
war. Carlyle was educated at the grammar school before going to
the University of Edinburgh (see p. 147). There are flourishing
industries in the town and vicinity — agriculture, fisheries, grain-
milling, saw-milling, wood-working, engineering, tile and brick-
making, distilling, boat-building, sandstone-quarrying, and cattle
sales. There is also a small shipping trade. The mansion houses
of Mount Annan, Warmanbie, and Northfield are in the parish,
(pp. 4, 6, 12, 15, 18, 20, 46, 47, 50, 73, 76, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84,
85, 9X> 92, 93, in, 120, 121, 125, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132, 133,
135, 140, 141, 145, 150.)
Applegarth and Sibbaldbie (821), is a parish in Mid-
Annandale. Jardine Hall and Dinwoodie Lodge are in the parish,
(p. 20.)
Bankend is a hamlet with quaint, thatched houses, in the
parish of Caerlaverock. (pp. 94, 140.)
154
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Brydekirk (951) is a quoad sacra parish with a village of
the same name three miles from Annan. The old chapel is
situated near the Annan above the village. In the red sandstone
quarry of Corsehill 130 men are employed producing over 15,000
tons of stone annually, (pp. 20, 92.)
Canonbie (1838) is a parish in Eskdale. Coal is worked
near Rowanburn — the Old Colliery and Blinkbonny — and
18,000 tons are banked by 105 men and boys. The limestone
Jardine Hall
quarry in the parish produces 2000 tons of lime. The Glenzier
sandstone quarry is now little worked. There are five villages —
Rowanburn, Bowholm, Claygate, Hollows, and Evertown — and
several old towers exist in the district, (pp. 10, 21, 32, 41, 60,
69* 79> I07> I28.)
Carronbridge (200) is a village in Morton parish, whose
neat homes are mostly occupied by workers on the Queensberry
Estate, (pp. 15, 1 6, 128.)
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 155
Carrutherstown, a village in Dalton parish (589), has a
public library and hall. The following mansion houses are in
the neighbourhood, Dormont, Rammerscales, Whitecroft, Denbie,
Kirkwood, Hetland.
Closeburn (1244) is a parish, with a village (200) of the
same name. Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, tended sheep at
Mitchellslacks, formerly the home of the Harknesses, Covenanters.
Wallace Hall Academy, a higher grade school, was founded by
John Wallace in 1723. "The Kilns" have produced lime for
nearly a century and a half. The village is known as "The
Crossroads." (pp. 15, 24, 33, 35, 40, 67, 70, 72, 76, 80, 96, 99,
100, 106, no, 112, 124, 147.)
Cummertrees (1027) is a parish, with a village of the
same name. Here are situated the lime quarry of Kelhead,
Kinmount House, and Repentance Tower. The fisheries give
employment to some of the inhabitants. Powfoot (q.v .) is also
in the parish, (pp. 47, 50, 80, 83, 147.)
Dornock (820) is a maritime parish in Annandale, with a
village of the same name. Blacket, Robgill, and Stapleton are
mansion houses in the parish, (pp. 47, 51, 83, 91.)
Dumfries (16,061), on the east side of the river Nith, as a
royal burgh dates from 1186. Courts, justiciary, sheriff, burghal,
and justice of peace, are held in Dumfries. The inhabitants are
engaged in agriculture, floriculture, arboriculture, weaving of
tweeds, hosiery and gloves, tanning, coach-building, jam-making,
printing, and other industries and trades connected with these.
Markets are held on the High Street, in auction-marts, and on
the White Sands. Its public buildings, county buildings, town
hall, academy, Ewart public library, hospitals, Crichton institution,
churches, are handsome edifices. The streets are well paved, and
in the suburbs, roads, wide and well laid out, lead to beautiful
villas. The mid-steeple is a historic landmark on High Street,
156
DUMFRIESSHIRE
and the statue of Burns is an arresting object on the same street.
In St Michael's churchyard, a befitting shrine holds the ashes of
the great poet who often walked "The Plainstanes" of Dumfries.
Beside his mausoleum, amid a thicket of monuments, lie three
grave-slabs commemorating Welsh, Grierson, and Kirko, martyred
Covenanters. In the Council Chamber is exhibited the Siller
Gun, a shooting trophy presented to the Incorporated Trades of
!*->:,'
Dunscore Church
Dumfries by James VI in 1617. The local museum at the
observatory, across the river in Maxwelltown, contains many
curious local relics. There are clubs for golf, bowling, hockey,
cricket, carpet-bowling, lawn-tennis, rowing, football, and curling.
Vessels of 300 tons discharge at Kingholm Quay. Castlebank
overlooking Kingholm is the site of Dumfries Castle, (pp. 2, 3,
4, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 35, 36, 47, 54, 55, 58, 60, 61, 65, 66, 67,
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 157
73, 74, 76, 77, 83, 84, 85, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 106, 107, 109,
no, 119, 120, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 133, 135, 138, 140, 145,
147, 149, 150, 151, 152.)
Dunscore (1027) is a parish, with a village of the same
name, in the western valley watered by the Cairn and Cluden,
whose inhabitants are wholly engaged in agriculture. At Craigen-
puttock, on its uplands, Carlyle lived and wrote; at Ellisland
Burns was a farmer; and at Lag Castle Sir Robert Grierson, the
persecutor, dwelt. The Welshes of Dunscore and Craigenputtock
are buried in the parish churchyard, Grierson of Lag in the old
churchyard. Friars Carse, in the parish, was an early possession
of the Monks of Melrose. It was the home of the Riddells of
Glenriddell in the time of Burns, who there witnessed the famous
contest for the whistle, (pp. 11, 16, 24, 42, 63, 123, 128, 140.)
Durisdeer (849) is a large inland parish in Nithsdale,
occupied mostly by agriculturists and sheep-masters. A small
kirk-town stands beside the parish church. In the churchyard
Daniel Macmichael, the Covenanter, shot at Dalveen, is buried.
Drumlanrig Castle is in the parish. The sites of Durisdeer and
Enoch Castles remain prominent. Dalveen Pass, Enterkin Pass,
and Kirkbride Church are favourite spots for visitors, (pp. 16,
97, 100, 106, 107, 109, 124, 140, 149.)
Eaglesfield (500) is a flourishing village in Middlebie
parish, where many hands are employed in tailoring. Eagles-
field has a good library. Here William Lockhart the painter
(1846-1900) was born. (p. 77.)
Ecclefechan (750) is a village in the parish of Hoddom
(1258), once the seat of a gingham industry, and now the Mecca
of devotees of Thomas Carlyle. Ecclefechan station (Caledonian
Railway) is convenient for travellers to the Roman Camps of
Birrens and Birrenswark in the vicinity, (pp. 20, 33, 128, 147.)
158
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Enterkinfoot is a hamlet half-way between Thornhill and
Sanquhar, in Durisdeer parish. It lies at the foot of the wild
Enterkin Pass, the scene of a famous rescue of Covenanters from
the dragoons of Claverhouse on igth July 1684. The nearest
railway station is Carronbridge (G. & S. W. Railway), (pp. 16,
125, 140.)
Carlyle's Birthplace, Ecclefechan
Eskdalemuir (392) is the parish with the largest acreage
in the shire, namely 43,518^ acres, a district 13 miles long and
nine miles broad. A well-defined Roman camp at Raeburnfoot
(Overbie) and many circular forts remain. In 1908 an observa-
tory completely equipped with magnetographs, seismographs, and
other instruments for measuring atmospheric phenomena, was
erected here because of the absolute serenity of the station.
(PP- 3) 4, 10, 12, 21, 32, 42, 43, 57, 58, 60, 92, 97, 136.)
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 159
Gatelawbridge is a hamlet in Morton, where the quarry-
men of an extensive sandstone quarry reside, (pp. 35, 76, 80, 145.)
Glencaple is a village in Caerlaverock parish, five miles
below Dumfries, having a jetty where vessels of over 500 tons can
moor and discharge, in 14 feet of water. It is a favourite resort
for visitors, (p. 86.)
Gretna Green
Gretna or Graitney (1212) is a parish, with four villages
— Old Gretna, Gretna Green or Springfield, Rigg of Gretna, and
Brewhouses — and two railway stations. Being on the English
boundary, it was famous for runaway marriages celebrated at
Gretna Green. Gretna Green marriages are simple declarations
of marriage made before witnesses, and sometimes recorded by
the chief witness calling himself the celebrant. A marriage of
DUMFRIESSHIRE
160
this kind is still legal according to the law of Scotland, being
styled an irregular marriage. Registration granted by order of
the Court of Session or of the sheriff puts it into formal legal
order for civil purposes; and the Marriage Notice (Scotland) Act
only requires that one of the parties has his or her usual residence
in Scotland, or has resided there for 2 1 days before the marriage.
In "The Queen's Head" Inn at Springfield Lord Erskine was
Hoddom Church
married by David Lang in this old irregular way. The old
" Gretna Hall" hostelry, now a private residence, "The Maxwell
Arms," and the Tollhouse were scenes of marriage. These
irregular marriages could be contracted in any house, the self-
constituted "priest" being locally styled the blacksmith, because
he welded the contracting parties. Battles were fought in Gretna
parish. Here stands the famous treaty stone and landmark,
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 161
Clochmabenstane, and on the opposite shore at Burgh-by-Sands
is erected a memorial to Edward I on the spot where he died,
(pp. 20, 23, 35, 47, 50, 52, 56, 85, 97, 124, 128.)
Hoddom (1258) is a beautiful parish in Lower Annandale
where St Mungo planted his see and Fechan had his church.
The old castle of Hoddom is incorporated in a splendid mansion —
the residence of Mr E. J. Brook, (pp. 14, 20, 29, 39, 40, 69, 84,
87, 88, 97, 100, 116, 117, 130, 147.)
Hollows, a small hamlet in Canonbie parish, takes its name
from the fortalice of Johnie Armstrong, now repaired but not'
inhabitable, which stands above the Esk, four miles south of
Langholm. The site of Gilnockie Tower is near by. (pp. 13,
116, 119.)
Holywood (86.5) is a parish, with a hamlet (69) of the same
name, in Nithsdale. Some identify it with "the head of the wood
in Caledon." Here stands the great circle of stones called "The
Twelve Apostles." The old abbey, Dercongal, has disappeared
together with a hospital built by Archibald Douglas, the Grim.
Two ancient church bells hang in the belfry of the parish church.
There is a quarry at Morrington. (pp. 45, 87, 97, 106, 138.)
Johnstone (751) is a parish in the Howe of Annandale,
wherein is situated Raehills, the splendid residence of Mr Hope-
Johnstone, proprietor of nearly all the parish. Lochwood Tower,
now in ruins, the ancient family seat of the Johnstones, is built
on a ridge overlooking a great morass on the west. The Loch-
wood Oaks are of great antiquity, (pp. 12, 20.)
Keir (538) is a parish, with a hamlet of the same name,
beside the parish church, whose inhabitants are mostly engaged
in agriculture, except those employed at Barjarg lime quarry.
Here Kirkpatrick MacMillan, inventor of the bicycle, was born,
lived, and was buried. Capenoch House and Barjarg Tower are
in the parish, (pp. 16, 33, 100, 145, 150.)
H. D. II
162
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Kirkconnel (2144) is a parish, with increasing village, in
Upper Nithsdale, and includes part of the extensive coalfield,
which at present' employs 850 men and boys, and produces about
300,000 tons of coal annually. (pp.SS, 15, 30, 31, 32, 46, 76, 79,
100, 147, 149.)
Kirkmahoe (1080) is a well cultivated parish to the nortli
of Dumfries. Its villages are Kirkton, Duncow, Sunnybrae, and
Langholm Parish Church
Dalswinton; its mansions, Duncow, Dalswinton, Newlands, and
Isle.
Kirkpatrick- Fleming (1354) is a parish in the south-east
district of the county, with a station on the Caledonian Railway.
It lies within the red sandstone belt which was extensively quarried
at Craigshaws, Branteth, Sarkshields, and New Cove. The last
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 163
formerly employed 300 men and is still being worked. The
chief mansions are Cove, Langshaw, Kirkpatrick, Mossknowe,
Springkell, and Wyseby. (pp. 20, 104, 105, 115, 124, 143, 149.)
Kirkpatrick- Juxta (998) is a parish near Moffat. The
villages are Beattock (with station) and Craigielands. (pp. 20,
138.)
Langholm (2930) is a burgh situated on the banks of the
river Esk. The country around is charming. The chief build-
ings are the town hall, presented by the Duke of Buccleuch, the
Hope hospital, built and endowed out of a bequest of £100,000
left by Mr Thomas Hope, a New York merchant, Langholm
library and museum, academy, and Freemasons' hall. A statue
to Sir Pulteney Malcolm stands beside the library, and an obelisk
to commemorate Sir John Malcolm stands on Whita Hill. The
chief industries are tweed weaving, which gives employment to
660 workers, tanning, till lately whisky distilling, and the
sale of merchandise to an extensive district. There are six
woollen mills, and large sales of sheep, (pp. 12, 13, 21, 22, 29,
31, 41, 60, 72, 73, 76, 77, 91, 105, 121, 128, 131, 133, 149, 150.)
Lochmaben (1056) is an ancient royal burgh in Annandale
invested with much historic interest. Its lochs add distinction to
the landscape, and the ruined palace of the Scottish kings, in the
Castle Loch, is a vivid reminder of great national events. The
original castle of the Brus stood on the Castle hill and is ob-
literated. The present castle, in parts, dates from before 1300.
Tradition assigns the birthplace of King Robert I to Lochmaben.
In the vicinity are four villages, called The Four Towns of Loch-
maben, whose inhabitants have for many centuries been styled
"The King's Kindly Tenants," being descendants of the vassals
of King Robert the Bruce, who held their lands in copyhold, and
being registered in the Rent-Roll of the King's representative, or
castellan, at present, the Earl of Mansfield. These villages are
II— 2
164 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Greenhill, Heck, Hightae, and Smallholm. (pp. 4, 5, 6, 20, 24,
46, 47, 60, 66, 83, 92, 96, 106, in, 112, 122, 124, 128, 130,
Lockerbie (2455) is a small flourishing burgh town, beauti-
fully situated, in the parish of Dryfesdale (3188), in Mid- Annan-
dale. It is almost surrounded by the rivers Annan, Dryfe, and
Milk, and offers a pleasant resort for anglers. Since the intro-
duction of the railway in 1847, it has been converted out of
a quiet rural village into a hive of industry. Its sheep and lamb
sales are of great importance. Its modern buildings are hand-
some and well-built; its streets broad and clean, and its water
pure. It possesses a free library and higher grade school, besides
golf links and other attractions of modern pleasure resorts. Fox-
hounds and otter-hounds hunt here. In the vicinity is Dryfesands,
the scene of a bloody conflict between Maxwells and Johnstones
in 1593. Castlemilk, Jardine Hall, Elshieshields Tower are in
the neighbourhood, together with the romantic ruins of Spedlins
Tower. Lockerbie takes its name from the Locards, a family
who anciently held land there — hence "Locarde-bi." The highest
hill in the district, White Woollen or Quhyte Woollen, is pro-
nounced White Ween. The Lockerbie "Tryst," or great lamb-
fair, was formerly an annual event of much importance, and was
held on Lockerbie Hill. Over 40,000 lambs were brought for
sale. A local carnival was also held at the same time. (pp. 20,
60, 66, 68, 69, 72, 73, 76, 115, 120, 124, 128, 131, 133, 134-)
Middlebie (1722) is a rural parish in Annandale, with two
villages, Eaglesfield and Waterbeck. Two old parishes, Penersax
and Carruthers, are now united to Middlebie. In it are Birrens —
a Roman camp, and Scotsbrig, where Carlyle's father farmed.
The Carlyles anciently held lands here. (pp. 20, 66, 86, 97, 98.)
Moffat (2079), a police burgh, charmingly situated in Upper
Annandale, 500 feet above sea-level, is approached by splendid
166 DUMFRIESSHIRE
roads, and has a station on the Caledonian Railway. For centuries
Moffat has been famous for its mineral waters. The well affords
waters, sulphurous and saline and having other medicinal pro-
perties, which are much in demand for curing gout, rheumatism,
skin diseases and stomachic complaints. The Hartfell Spa is also
a chalybeate well of similar character and popular for dyspeptic
disorders. A large and magnificent Hydropathic, situated in
m
Renwick's Monument and Maxwelton Braes
lovely grounds on a commanding situation, adds distinction to
the neighbourhood. The town with its broad, clean streets is a
model for a health resort. A golf course, tennis courts, cricket
grounds, bowling greens, pleasure grounds, and charming walks
offer delightful rendezvous for tourists and visitors. The drives
around are most attractive.
Off the main street of Moffat stands Moffat House, a seat of
Mr J. J. Hope-Johnstone, Lord of the Manor. It is said to be a
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 167
good specimen of Adam's style of domestic architecture, (pp. 4,
12, 13, 18, 25, 29, 60, 72, 107, 109, no, 124, 128, 133, 140.)
Moniaive (500) is a pleasant, quiet village in the upper part
of the Cairn Valley in Glencairn parish (1410), nestling among
the hills. A light railway from Dumfries (G. & S. W. R.) has
made this sequestered spot an accessible health resort, where
hitherto agriculture and pastoral labour afforded a meagre
employment to the villagers. The owners of the land in Glen-
cairn, as a general rule, reside in the fine mansions which adorn
the district — Maxwelton, Crawfordton, Craigdarroch, Auchen-
chain, Townhead, and Caitloch. James Renwick, the martyred
Covenanter, was born at Knees, Moniaive, near the spot where
an obelisk to his memory stands. Several martyrs, shot in the
parish, are buried in Glencairn churchyard. There is a golf
course at Moniaive. (pp. 39, 103, 126, 128, 140.)
Mouswald (493) is a small agricultural and pastoral parish
lying south-east of Dumfries. Remains of castles, camps and
cairns testify to its importance in ancient times. St Peter was its
patron saint. Mouswald-Mains, or The Place, was the seat of
the Carruthers. Rockhall is the seat of the Griersons of Lag.
(pp. 18, 29, 56, 107, 119.)
Penpont (831) is a parish and village two miles from
Thornhill in Middle Nithsdale, whose inhabitants largely depend
upon work created through agriculture, (pp. 16, 30, 39, 100,
no, 135, 145.)
Powfoot is a favourite coast resort on the Solway, in Cum-
mertrees parish, with golf course, bowling green, tennis courts,
and other accessories of a summer watering place. Angling is
also procurable.
Ruthwell (770) is a parish, and village (100). The Knights
of St John of Jerusalem and Malta had a chapel, cemetery, and
168 DUMFRIESSHIRE
lands here. One of the finest standing crosses in Europe is
preserved in the parish church. The village of Clarencefield
(100) is in the parish. (pp. 29, 31, 35, 47, 50, 56, 57, 58, 60,
78, 88, 101, 102, 103, 114, 145.)
St MungO, or Abermelk (573), is a parish south of
Lockerbie which keeps alive the name of the great missionary,
and patron saint of Glasgow, Munghu Kentigern (514-603), who
Town Hall, Sanquhar
fixed his see in Hoddom. The beautiful mansion of Castlemilk,
the seat of Sir Robert Buchanan-Jardine, is in the parish, (pp. 63,
87, I33-)
Sanquhar (1508), a royal burgh, is situated in the valley of
Upper Nithsdale. Its history goes back to an early period; and
so early as 1296 we find "a new place," or stronghold, built at
Senewar," as it is then called. Sanquhar was a burgh of barony
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 169
till 1598 when James VI erected it into a royal burgh. The
present keep, sometimes called "Crichton Peel," was built in the
fifteenth century by a Crichton. The market cross formerly
stood on the street where an obelisk now commemorates two
events which occurred there, namely the publishing of the
Sanquhar Declarations. On 22nd June, 1680, Richard Cameron
published the first declaration, which disowned allegiance to
Charles II. On 2Qth May, 1685, James Renwick repudiated
James VII and his government. There are small villages at
Crawick Mill and Mennock Bridge. Agriculture, coalworks,
brickworks, tileworks, and hosiery manufacturing give employ-
ment to the people. In summer Sanquhar is popular as a health
resort, angling being easily obtained, and few restrictions existing
to prevent visitors enjoying the hill scenery. Sanquhar has a
golf course, (pp. 15, 29, 31, 32, 72, 77, 78, 79, 94, 98, 99, 107,
113, 114, 128, 130, 133, 135, 138, 140, 143.)
Thornhill (1169) 's a lovely village in the parish of Morton
(1820), in Middle Nithsdale, built on a high ridge, with broad
streets, some of which form boulevards of lime trees. At the
intersection of the streets stands a tall imposing market cross,
under which fairs and markets were formerly held. It was a
burgh of barony, and had a tolbooth, now a stable. Thornhill is
the centre of a historic district. Three miles and a half north is
the strong castle of Morton. Drumlanrig Castle, Closeburn Castle,
Tibbers, and Enoch are also in the vale. The parochial buildings
are of a very handsome character, and were gifts of the late
Walter, Duke of Buccleuch. Morton Public School, one of the
old parish schools, has produced many distinguished men, notably
Joseph Thomson, whose monument stands outside the building.
Angling facilities in the district are great. Regular series of drives
to romantic places are attractive, and now Thornhill is a health
resort. In the vicinity of Thornhill are the great sandstone
quarries of Gatelawbridge, Newton, and Closeburn. (pp. 12,
170
DUMFRIESSHIRE
l6» 33, 35, 4i» 43» 73> ?6, 77? 100, 103, 104, 105, 107, 113, 124,
125, 147.)
Tinwald and Trailflat (728) is an agricultural parish, five
miles north-east of Dumfries, in which stands Amisfield Tower,
the ancient seat of the Charteris family, of whom Sir Thomas was
Chancellor of Scotland in the thirteenth century, (pp. 18, 88, 93,
145, 147.)
Morton School and Schoolhouse, Thornhill
Torthorwald (788) is a parish and village, west of Dumfries,
whose ruined tower was formerly the seat of Kirkpatricks, and
afterwards of Carlyles. (pp. 18, 107, 112.)
Tundergarth (399) is a parish east of Lockerbie, in which
is a circle of stones known as The Seven Brethren." Traces of
the paved Roman road are seen here. (p. 20.)
Tynron (309) is a small but romantic hilly parish, watered
by the Shinnel, and dominated by the commanding triple-ditched
CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 171
fort, called Tynron Dun, to be seen from every point in Mid-
Nithsdale. The Roman road is said to run from the Dun to
Drumloff, crossing the Shinnel above Stenhouse. In this parish
Robert the Bruce hid. In the churchyard lies the body of
William Smith, a Covenanter, shot on Moniaive Moss in 1685.
James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, tended- sheep in this parish,
(pp. n, 16, 30, 96, 109.)
Wanlockhead
(The highest houses in Scotland)
Wamphray (369) is a parish, stream, and station (Caledonian
Railway) in Annandale. The Roman road is traceable through
it. Wamphray Glen is noted for its beauty. In the old tower
of Wamphray lived ' The Galliard," a Johnstone, of whose fight-
ing retinue it was said "the Wamphray lads are kings of men."
A famous minister of Wamphray in the seventeenth century, and
a voluminous writer, was John Brown. Exiled to Holland, he
there harassed the government of Charles II by his pungent pen.
(pp. 12, 20.)
172 DUMFRIESSHIRE
Wanlockhead (624) is a quoad sacra parish and village on
the confines of the county, formerly in Sanquhar 'parish. It is
famous for its lead-mines, employing 250 workmen. A light
railway connects this village among the hills with Leadhills and
Elvanfoot, in Lanarkshire. The station stands 1384 feet above
sea-level. In the churchyard is interred Professor William
Hastie, a remarkable scholar, (pp. 8, 29, 30, 76, 79, 129, 138.)
(393) is a pastoral parish to the north-west of
Langholm. An antimony mine at Glendinning was worked up
to about twenty years ago. Westerhall, a well-wooded estate,
an old seat of the Johnstones, with salmon fishings worth £300 a
year, was sold in portions in 1911. (pp. 21, 80, 143.)
DIAGRAMS
173
Scotland
30,408 square miles
Dumfriesshire
1,079 sq. miles
Fig. i. Area of Dumfriesshire compared with
that of Scotland
Scotland
Population 4,759,445
Dumfriesshire
72,024
Fig. 2. The population of Dumfriesshire compared
with that of Scotland in 1911
174
DUMFKIESSHIRE
Lanarkshire 1633 Dumfries 67
Sutherland 10
Scotland 157
Fig. 3. Comparative density of Population to the
square mile (1911)
(Each dot represents ten persons)
Other Crops 92,396 acres
and
Permanent Grass
118,733 acres
Fig. 4. Proportionate area under Corn Crops in
Dumfriesshire in 1910
DIAGRAMS
175
Mountain & Heathland
used for Grazing .
382,112 acres
Fig. 5. Comparative areas of land in Dumfriesshire
in igio
Fig. 6. Proportionate areas of land producing Corn,
Turnips, etc., and Potatoes in 1910
176
DUMFRIESSHIRE
Fig. 7. Proportionate numbers of Sheep, Cattle, Horses
and Pigs in Dumfriesshire in 1910
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