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THE TRANSACTIONS AND JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY Natural History & Antiquarian Sociely. ¢ sh speek f 2H g AQ FOUNDED NOVEMBER, 136? Sub Sol ON 1s 94 = 35. PRINTED AT THE COURIER AND HERALD OFFICES, DUMFRIES. 1896. a, ¥ Rin 2s 3 Eas aS GM2. pas DY @ OnGreaIN Gir SEs — 0585 0 0-—_—_ Prestdent. Sir JAMES CRICHTON-BROWNE, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. Dice-Presidents. THOMAS M'‘KIE, F.S.A., Advocate. i WILLIAM JARDINE MAXWELL, M.A., Advocate. JAMES GIBSON HAMILTON STARKE, M.A., Advocate. PHILIP SULLEY, F.R. His. Soe. Hrecretary. EDWARD J. CHINNOCK, LL.D., M.A., LL.B. @reaswrer. JOHN A. MOODIE, Solicitor. Hibrariay. JAMES LENNOX, F.S.A. Qurator of Herbarium. GEORGE F. SCOTT-ELLIOT, M.A., B.Sc., F.L.S., assisted by the Misses HANNAY. Gurator of HMluseum. PETER GRAY. Other Mlembers. Rev. WILLIAM ANDSON. JAMES BARBOUR, Architect. JAMES DAVIDSON, F.I.C. JAMES C. R. MACDONALD, M.A,, W.S. ROBERT MURRAY. JOHN NEILSON, M.A GEORGE H. ROBB, M.A. JAMES MAXWELL ROSS, M.A., M.B. JAMES 8. THOMSON. JAMES WATT. Gr @ ANTE 6 IN aS ) Page. Secretary’s Report 1 Treasurer’s Report Z The Home of Annie Laurie. --Rev. Sir E. Laurie ... 3 Botanical Notes for 1894. J. M‘Andrew 10 Kirkbean Folklore. 8S. Arnott ... WW Dumfries Sixty Years ago. R. H. Taylor 18 Antiquittes of Dunscore. Rev. R. Simpson ... 27 Colvend during Fifty Years. Rev. J. Fraser 38 Birrens and Birrenswark. J. Macdonald 5D All that is known of Epictetus. KE. J. Chinnock ... 67 Conversazione in January ... 72 Emotional Expression. Sir J. Crichton-Browne 76 Standing Stones of the Stewartry (Illustrated). EF. R. Coles 78 Meteorology of Dumfries, 1894. Rev. W. Andson 84 A Famous Old Battlefield. A. D. Murray 89 New-Galloway Fresh Water Alee. J. M‘Andrew... 97 Superstitious Custom in Galloway. J. M‘Kie 98 Twenty Years’ Residence in Tynron. J. Shaw 99 Troqueer in the Olden Time. J. G. H. Starke 107 Incidents in Nithsdale during the Jacobite Rising of 1745. J. W. Whitelaw 117 Mr Scott-Elliot’s Welcome Home. Addresses by Sir J. Crichton-Browne and Mr Scott-Elliot ... if iB Ch 08 ae .. 138 The Forest Ruwenzori. G. F. Scott-Elliot ... 143 Food Plants—The Cereals. P. Gray 146 Old Annan. G. Neilson 152 Field Meetings—Birrens. Addresses by Mr J. Barbour and Dr MacDonald me ae PORE ae a nee UG List of Members 187 PROCEEDINGS AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY NATURAL HISTORY & ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, Solvo so LON: 918.9) 4 = 9° 5). 18th October, 1894. ANNUAL MEETING. Mr Witiiam J. Maxweut, M.P., in the Chair. New Members.—Colonel Edward Blackett of Arbigland and Mr William Barber of Terreran. Mr Frederick R. Coles, of Edinburgh, was elected an honorary member. Donations. — Cooke & Berkeley’s Fungi, presented by Mr William Thomson, Kirkcudbright ; Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1894; Report of the British Association, 1893 ; Catalogue of Grierson’s Museum, presented by Mr J. R. Wilson; Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club, 1894; Report of - Marlborough College Natural History Society, 1893 ; Proceed- ings of Natural Science Association of Staten Island, 1893 ; Transactions of Canadian Institute, 1894; Report of Kirkcaldy Naturalists’ Society ; Cystopteris Montana in Stirlingshire and Records from the Scilly Isles, by A. Somerville. SECRETARY'S REPORT. The Secretary (Dr E. J. Chinnock) read the Annual Report :— There are 182 members of the Society, of whom 19 are honorary and 8 life members. Ten new members were elected during the year. The Society sustained a loss by the removal from the town of two active members, Mr Robert M‘Glashan and the Rev. Robert Macintosh. This was somewhat counterbalanced by the accession to our working membership of Mr Peter Gray, 2 Transactions. who for many years has been an honorary member and a frequent contributor to our Transactions. Hight evening meetings and two field meetings have been held. At the former 25 papers were read, some of which were of permanent value, and all of which were interesting. The communications of Messrs M‘Andrew, Johnstone, Coles, Murray, Shaw, Dudgeon, and Fingland were especially valuable. In the absence of Mr Scott- Elliot in Africa, the herbarium has been carefully protected and enlarged by Miss Hannay. Mr Andson has continued his meteorological observations with unremitting diligence. Unfor- tunately the bad weather prevented us from having more than two summer excursions, one to Jeadhills and the other to Threave Castle. TREASURER’S REPORT. The Treasurer (Mr J. A. Moodie) read his Annual Report, from the lst October, 1893, to the 30th September, 1894 :— CHARGE. Balance in Savings Bank at close of last Account £4 10 0 oe », Lreasurer’s hands ,, aS is 015 25 ST DEcHBHpRS from 123 Members at 5s each .. se 530 cho eee) Nay 0) Susoripuens from 12 Members at2s6d 110 0 Entrance Fees from 8 New Members 2 ] Two Subscriptions paid in advance for next year 0 10 O Arrears paid—two Subscriptions ... Ho sox M110) 0) Copies of Transactions sold ... ONS Interest on Bank Account ... ORO IaG £40 6 115 DISCHARGE. Paid Salary of Keeper of Rooms aco) BEL KO) ©) , tor Stationery, Printing, and Adeernaine Seem beats »» >» Periodicals and Books 2 G4 » »» Repairs to Building Pas (0) 7 » >», Coals and Gas be Oy Sia > »» Premium ot Fire Tasaranes 0 4 6 », secretary’s Outlays and Postages bo 5 », Lreasurer’s 56 2 I DOG | Carry forward one ... £10 10 11 Transactions. 3 Brought forward ... . £10 10 11 Paid Expenses of calling Meetings, a as follows :— Post Cards °.. Rs .£3 16 6% Paid for addressing same ... 1 2 0 », R. Johnstone for print- ingsame ... jaan) Wenlts)y 24k ————— 517 los Paid Expenses of publishing Trans- actions for last year, as follows :— Paid Account to Wood & Son, Photo. Lithographers, Edin- burgh £0 11 14 Paid Postage of Transactions to Country Members 505) Oh De Paid Dumfries Herald for printing Transactions ... 21 14 6 22°14 74 Miscellaneous... i bie ee ib. wth OWT 4 £39) 14° 9 Balance in Savings Bank ... woos) | ae) BG Deduct Balance due to Treasurer ... 0 3 34 — 012 2% £40 6 115 (Sgd.) J. A. MOODIK, Hon. Treasurer. Dumrrizs, 4th December, 1894.—-I have examined the foregoing Account and the Cash Book of the Society, compared them with the Vouchers, and find the Balances stated to be correct. (Sed.) JOHN NEILSON. ) ELECTION OF OFFICGE-BEARERS. The following were elected Office-bearers and Members of the Council for the ensuing session :—/President—Sir James Crichton- Browne, F.R.S8.; Vice-Presidents—Rev. William. Andson, Messrs Thomas M‘Kie, William J. Maxwell, and James G. H. Starke ; Secretary--Edward J. Chinnock, LL.D.; Vreaswrer—Mr John A. Moodie ; Librarian—Mr James Lennox ; Cwrator of Museum —Mr Peter Gray ; Curators of Herbarium—Mr George F. Scott Elliot and Miss Hannay. Members of the Council—Messrs James Barbour, James Davidson, Thomas Laing, James C. R. Macdonald, Robert rae John Neilson, George H. Robb, James M. Ross, James 8. Thomson, and James Waitt. The Rev. Sir Eutiivus Laurisz, Bart., M.A., then read a paper entitled —‘‘ The Home of Annie Laurie” :— The home of Annie Laurie enjoys any notoriety which it may possess, not from its antiquity, for there are many older houses 4 Transactions. even in this part of Scotland, not from any peculiarity of struc- ture, not from any part that it has played in history ; but from its association with the name of Annie Laurie; and that lady owes her fame, such as it is, not to any accident of birth or to anything remarkable in her character or career, but simply to the song composed by the man she threw over. The air was, as you know, composed by a lady whois still living, Lady John Scott of Spottiswoode, widow of a brother of the late Duke of Buc- cleuch. The song, however, is old. Annie, or more correctly, Anna Laurie was born at Barjarg in December, 1682. She was the youngest of four daughters of Sir Robert Laurie and Jean Riddell, daughter of Riddell of Minto. In due course she became engaged to Douglas of Fingland, who composed the song in her honour. For what reason history does not tell ; whether the engagement went off on the settlements, or was off by mutual consent, or was a simple case of jilting, I know not; but in spite of the lyric, in spite of ‘‘ her promise true,” in spite of the per- sonality of her lover, Miss Anna threw him over, and married Alexander Fergusson of Craigdarroch. Douglas, however, seems to have survived the disappointment ; he did not “lay him doun and dee,” but married one Betty Clark of Glenboig. His poetic phrenzy, however, must have died out, for there is no second lyric handed down descriptive of the swan-like neck and dark blue e’e of Betty Clark; possibly she could not compete in beauty with her rival, possibly the braes of Glenboig were not as bonnie as those of Maxwelton. The song, I have said, was old. I had a curious confirmation of this a few years ago. A lady and gentleman, Mr and Mrs Bennoch, of London (he was a native of Durisdeer), spent a day at Maxwelton. In the course of con- versation Mrs Bennoch, then a lady of perhaps 70, told me the following anecdote :—‘‘ When I was a girl I was staying in Yorkshire, and being asked to sing I sang the song of Annie Laurie. An old lady, a Miss Douglas, aged 90, was in the room; she complimented me upon my singing, and then said—‘ But those are nae the words my grandfather wrote.’ She then gaye a slightly different version of the first verse, saying that her father had often repeated them to her, as taught him by his father, the Douglas who wrote the song.” This is strong con- firmatory evidence of the genuineness and authenticity of the song in question. So far as we know, then, there was nothing remarkable about Miss Anna Laurie; her first lover immortalised Transactions. 5 her by a song, and a lady of great musical gifts in our own day has immortalised the Song by the air to which she set it. But what is there to say about Annie’s Home? It existed in her time, it exists now ; what has the old house to say about itself? The Maxwelton estate was bought in 1611 by Stephen Laurie, a merchant in this town, having previously for some 200 years belonged to the Earls of Glencairn. In Van Gent's map of Scotland, bearing date 1654, the house is depicted as a castle, and called “ Glenkairn Castel,” with a farm near it called “ Maxweltown.” When the old name was changed I do not know ; possibly Stephen Laurie or his son, having no connection with the family of Lord Glencairn, took the name of Laurie of Maxwelton, that being the name of the farm on which the castle stood, and that name gradually dispossessed the old one. The site of Glencairn Castle was well chosen, whether for beauty or for defence. It stands on the northern side of the Cairn valley, upon a small promontory of rock, running out from one of the spurs of the Keir range of hills ; the ground behind it dips to the north before it reaches the steep slopes of the hillside ; it falls somewhat on the eastern and western sides, whilst to the south it falls at first abruptly, but more leisurely afterwards, down to the river below. The house stands near the opening into Glencairn of the Clan pass, the only depression in the range of hills by which to cross from Nithsdale into the valley of the Cairn. Thus the ground fell on all four sides of the old castle, which must have stood out as a watch-tower, commanding the whole valley ; whilst it was admirably placed for disputing the passage of the Clan should any unfriendly attack be attempted from that quarter. There can be no doubt, I think, that the present house stands on the site, and incorporates a large portion of the old castle ; the two in fact are practically one. It occu- pies three sides of a quadrangle, of which a portion of the larger or western wing was burnt down about the middle of the last century. But there remains the rude foundations of the whole house—the tower at the south-west corner and a small turret at the inner north-west angle of the courtyard, two old arches in the eastern wing, and many portions of a wall of great thickness, that of the tower being five feet, and one within the western wing being twelve feet thick. In “The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland,” by Macgibbon & Ross, the building which bears the nearest resemblance to Maxwelton is 6 Transactions. Edzell Castle in Forfarshire, belonging to the third period of Scottish architecture, from 1400 to 1542, during which period the keep-tower began to be enlarged into a building surrounding a courtyard or quadrangle. In the later examples of that period a turret is introduced, as at Edzell and Maxwelton, into the re-entering angle of the wing, so as to give convenient access to the room on either side of the angle. Edzell Castle consists of a 15th century tower, enlarged in the 16th century into a building round a quadrangle, and, as is the case at Maxwelton, the garden adjoins the Castle on the south. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Maxwelton estate belonged to the Earls of Glencairn. The title was granted in 1488, and I am disposed to think that about that time the original building was erected, or possibly a still older building re-constructed, and the designation of Glenkairn Castle given to it by the Earl of that name. This makes the home of Annie Laurie to have been about 200 years old when she was born, or 400 years old at the present date. TAN vaulted chamber, which occupied the first floor of the tower, goes by the name of “ Annie Laurie’s boudoir”; though J much doubt whether the fourth daughter of a country gentlemen possessed such a luxury 200 years ago. It may possibly have been a small oratory. More authentic are the portraits of Annie and her husband, Alexander Fergusson, son of the Fergusson who was killed at Killiecrankie in 1689, which have never been out of the family, and which I was fortunate enough to acquire by purchase some years ago. For nearly 300 years, then, the present family has been in possession of Maxwelton. The property was originally a large one, Craigdarroch and Maxwelton dividing the greater part of the parish of Glencairn between them ; but on the failure of the Ayr Bank of Douglas, Heron & Co., in 1772, after two years of as neat an exhibition of knavery and folly as any modern company promoter might find it difficult to surpass, four-fifths or more of the property was sold to cover calls, which, it is said, amounted to £1400 per share. The first owner of Maxwelton, Stephen Laurie, was a flourish- ing Dumfries merchant, and married Marion, daughter of Provost Corsane, receiving with her, it is said, a large fortune. Anyhow, they bought Maxwelton of the Earl of Glencairn. His son John married Agnes Grierson, of the Lag family, and their marriage stone is still preserved over an old doorway at Maxwelton—J.L. A.G., 1641, with crest and arms, and underneath in Latin, “© Ni Transactions. 7 ceepta Dominus juverit frustra struis moles superbas cedium.” Their son Robert married Jean Riddell, and their marriage stone still exists. Anna Laurie was their daughter. He was created a Baronet in 1685, Anna being then three years old. Their son Walter married Jane Nisbet; and their son Robert married Christian Erskine, daughter of Charles Erskine of Alva, a Lord of Session by the title of Lord Barjarg, and afterwards Lord Justice Clerk. This marriage linked the family on to all kinds of ancient fellows—Erskines, Mars, Murrays, &., some of them possibly worthy of no great praise, but playing a prominent part in the history of the country. The son of Robert Laurie and Christian Erskine was General Sir Robert Laurie, for 30 years Member for this County. His wife was Elizabeth Ruthven, a daughter of Lord Ruthven, and through her mother a grand- daughter of the second Earl of Bute. They had two children, a son, Admiral Sir Robert Laurie, who died in 1848, and a daughter, my mother’s mother, who married Mr Fector, of Dover. The last survivor of that family died in 1892 at the age of 88, and with her the name of Fector, or Vechter, as it was originally, became extinct. I have said that in all its early generations the family inhabiting the home of Annie Laurie remained purely Scotch, but that has not been the case more recently. The earliest members of the Laurie family appear to have been strong adherents of the Reformation. Ido not know about Stephen ; he was possibly too much taken up with making money, and investing it in the purchase of a large estate ; but his son, John, was one of the Dumfriesshire Committee for advancing the Covenanting cause, and in 1662 was fined £3600 Scots for not conforming to the prelatical commands of Charles II. He had married, however, Agnes Grierson, of the Lag family, possibly not bad diplomacy in those dangerous times. He does not seem, however, to have changed his opinions himself, but his son, Robert, adopted the political principles of his mother’s family, and became one of the most active supporters of the King and Claverhouse. In 1685 James II. created him a Baronet “for his merits,” and we know what that meant with the Popish King, and shortly afterwards he justified the King’s opinion of him by sentencing William Smith to death, the son of one of his own workmen, for refusing to betray the hiding places of the Cove- nanters. The inscription now to be read on his tombstone in Tynron Churchyard contains the words—“ Douglas of Stenhouse, 8 Transactions. Laurie of Maxwelton caused Cornet Bailie give me martyrdom.” This is one side of the picture, we will now travel somewhat afield for the other, and, as I hold, the happier and the better side. In the 16th century the ancient family of de Bailleul had long owned estates in Spanish Flanders; but, having embraced the principles of the Reformation, they emigrated in the next century from Spanish Flanders, then under Philip IJ. and the Inquisition, to French Flanders, and thence, when persecution began under Louis XIV., to England, where they purchased property near Peterborough, and intermarrying with the families around them, were ere long known by the English name of Bayley. From one of those Protestant refugees my tather’s family is descended. Thus shortly before the time at which Sir Robert Laurie was sentencing William Smith to death for adherence to Reformation principles, an ancestor on my father’s side was, for the sake of the same principles, forsaking his own country, and seeking refuge in England. But we have another link with the principles of the Reformation. In the year in which William Smith was put to death, a member of the French family of Minet, Isaac by name, was carrying on business in Calais. In that year the edict of Nantes was revoked by Louis XIV. The persecution of the Protestants became exceedingly severe, and Isaac Minet, who had embraced the new faith, was cast into prison, and told by the president that if he did not sign to be a Roman Catholic he would be burnt. He, however, made his escape, and with other members of hisfamily, 23 persons in all, crossed by night in an open boat to Dover, and there founded a banking house. He was joined in due course by his nephew, Peter Fector or Vechter, a native of Mulhausen, who, with his father, had married into the Minet family, and together they carried on for many years the bank of Minet and Fector, now absorbed into the National Provincial Bank of England. The son of Peter Fector and Mary Minet was my mother’s father, as also of the late Mr Laurie (formerly Fector) of Maxwelton. Thus whilst on my father’s side we claim direct descent from the victims of Roman Catholic persecution, we claim a like connection on my mother’s side also, and can show that at the very time that the one ancestor was doing the Covenanter to death, other ancestors were bearing witness to Reformation principles, and forsaking their own country for ever rather than renounce them. And this _ Transactions. 9 much I may perhaps be allowed to add, that to the industry and high character of these Protestant refugees and their descendants we owe the modest fortune that has come down to us, and which enables us to prolong the occupation by our family of the home of Annie Laurie. But more than this; we all, I suppose, value that principle of association which clothes the world with memories of the past, and finds in the beauties that surround us the background of human history. It is the want of this that is felt so deeply by our American cousins, and makes them feel that the old world is so much richer ~than the new. I was travelling to Windsor some years ago in company with some American gentlemen, and as we crossed the Thames one of them said—‘ Oh ! that’s your river Thames is it? In our country we should call it a ditch.” I answered—“ Yes, I daresay you would; but in your country you have no ditches, or rivers either, with Oxford, and Windsor Castle, and Runnymede, and Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London on their banks.” ‘ No,” he said, ‘you have me there.” And to illustrate great principles by small facts, it is this love of association with old memories which prompted an American to write to me last year to ask for some roots of ivy from our house, saying that many would value cuttings taken from the home of Annie Laurie; and which induced another American, bearing our name, to invite me, in virtue of some possible connection with us in the past, to visit Chicago at the exhibition, with a free offer of the rights of hospitality. I confess that I find in the house in which we live, verified in connection with the family -history of those who ‘inhabit it, a not altogether barren application of the law of association. There may well have been sound religious principle in that grandfather of Annie Laurie, who placed the motto already quoted under his marriage stone. So with the author of another motto over an old farmhouse door on the property—‘“ The fear of God be in this house.” The humble title which I bear is not that granted to my perse- cuting ancestor by the second James (that has died out), but that granted much more recently, on his retirement from the bench after 27 years of judicial life, to my father’s father, deseribed as ‘a learned and upright judge, noted as well for his benevolence as for his erudition.” I have nothing to unlearn from him, - 2 10 Transactions, 8th November, 1894. Mr James G. H. Starke, M.A., in the Chair. New Member.—Captain William Stewart of Shambellie. Donations.—Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, North Carolina, 1893; Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1892; Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smith- sonian Institution ; and the Pamunkey Indians of Virginia ; the Maya Year; and the Bibliography of Wakashan Languages (published by the same Bureau). Exhibit.— Mr Starke exhibited a Cell found at Goldielea a few years ago. CoMMUNICATIONS. 1. Botanical Notes for 1894. By James M‘AnprEw, New-Galloway. WicTowNsHIRE.— During the past summer (1894) Mr Dugald MacFarlane, B.A., Greenock, and I were fortunate in adding a few more new plants to the Flora of Wigtownshire. The following six plants are new records for that county :—1, Ranunculus Lenormandt, growing in hill ditches cleaned out last year, on the south side of Kilitringan Fell, Portpatrick, &c. ; 2, Ranunculus circinatus, growing in abundance at the south end of Soulseat Loch ; 3, Calamintha acinos, with every appearance of being wild, on an earth dyke between Castle-Kennedy Station and Soulseat Loch ; 4, Sisymbriwm thaliana, at Port Kale, Port- patrick (this is a spring plant, and has almost disappeared before July or August); 5, Bromus sterilis, close to the gamekeeper’s cottage, Dunskey ; 6, Carex filiformis, found by the Rev. James Gorrie, F.C., Sorbie, in Prestrie Loch, Whithorn. Among other interesting plants not formerly seen by me around Portpatrick may be mentioned—AFadiola millegranna, in several places among the moors; Scrophularia aquatica, in a ditch near the gamekeeper’s cottage, Dunskey; Pulicaria dysenterica, on the grassy slopes between Portpatrick and Dunskey Glen; J/unews glaucus, Carex intermedia, Calystegia soldanella, in Knock Bay ; Huphorbia portlandica, North of Port 0’ Spital ; Lycopodium clavatum, on the old Stranraer road, about four miles east of Portpatrick (this confirms this plant for Transactions. 11 Wigtownshire) ; Vasturtiwm palustre, in Poltanton Burn ; Carex remota, in Genoch Woods ; Sayina subulata, in Torrs Warren 3 Trifolium strratwm, on the road into the piggery at Dunragit Creamery ; Callitriche autwmnalis, in Soulseat Loch; and Ornithopus perpusilius in abundance in the adjoining fields. Among mosses the following are worthy of record :— Didymodon turidus and Dicranella varia, var. callistomwm, on mud banks on the west side of Loch Ryan ; Didymodon flextfolius, on the moors; and Splachnum ampullaceum, on dung. The three following Hepatic may be noted, as they are by no means Common :—Anewra latifrons, growing with the two mosses already mentioned on the shore of Loch Ryan; Riccia glaucescens, on Lagganmore Moor, on the Port 0’ Spital road ; and in a field adjoining, abundance of Anthocerus punctatus. Raccia glaucescens I formerly found by the side of Dunskey Lakes, and also on Burnfoot Hill, New-Galloway, and misnamed it Riccia bifurca (readers will kindly make this correction in my ‘ List of Mosses and Hepatice”). Near Portpatrick I found the lichens Purmelia revoluta in fruit; Coccocarpia plumbea, at the mouth of Dunskey Glen ; and the rare lichen, Cladonia leptophylla, on the moors around Portpatrick. Several years ago I discovered this Cladonia around New-Galloway, and its discovery around Portpatrick extends the distribution to the west of Wigtown- shire. ; KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHiRg.—Around New-Galloway since last year I have found the following cryptogams:—The moss, Hypnuwm crista-castrensis (the ostrich feather moss), in two places in the Garroch Glen, and also Hypnum callichroum, Brid., near it ; and the following Hepatice new to this district — Radula aquilegia, Tayl. ; Hucalyx hyalina, Lyell ; Aplozia spherocarpa, Hook. ; Lophozia porphyroleuca, Nees; Lejeunea serpyllifolia, var. planiuscula, Lindb. ; var. cavifolia, Ehrh.; and Nardia compressa, Gray. 2. Some Kirkbean Folklore. By Mr Samuent Arnott, Carsethorn. It must be said that the record of ghosts seems a long one for so small a parish. Six ina district about six miles in length, and averaging only three miles broad, seem a liberal allowance, 12 Transactions. and make it appear that such unwelcome parishioners were plentiful enough. Even this is exclusive of one of which nothing is known, but whose memory is only kept green by the name of the old Castle of Wreaths, which is said to be derived from the word “wraith” or apparition. The ghost itself seems to have vanished, and it probably disappeared with the destruction of the dense forest which is said to have surrounded the old castle. Taking the haunts of the ghosts in the order of a journey from Dumfries, the first is that which is said to have been frequented by a lady in white. This is on the main road shortly after entering the parish and close to a plantation of trees. Here in the shade of the trees, and with no sound near save the rushing of a neighbouring stream, this lady is said to have alarmed the passers-by. No one can tell me anything more about this ghost, and it is probable that even its reputed existence would have been forgotten had it not been that the belief in this supernatural being was turned to account in an ingenious way. A young woman living at a neighbouring farm was in the habit of meeting her sweetheart at a part of the road near the haunted spot, and in order to secure herself from annoyance was wont to wear a white sheet when going to the trysting place. ‘Tradition says that this love affair was none the less prosperous from the apparent want of reverence for the supernatural, but that the lovers were eventually joined in the bonds of matrimony. The next ghost we hear of with more detail, and the story is a tragic one with an ending in sharp contrast to that of the one just told. It is said to have haunted what is known as the “Three Cross Roads,” near Arbigland, a lonely spot, where, on a wild night, the dread feeling which was in these days felt in the deep darkness caused by the surrounding trees must have been intensified by the sound of the wind through their branches, and the roar of the waves of the boisterous Solway. The ghost was generally supposed to be that of a young man, and the tale is a romantic one, which, in the hands of an accomplished novelist, would form a thrilling narrative. As is pretty well known, Arbigland at one time belonged to a family of the name of Craik. Its then representative had a daughter who, it is said, had become attached to a young man named Dunn, who was in her father’s employment as a groom or horse-breaker. One day a shot was heard, and soon after the lifeless body of Dunn was found near where the ghost was said afterwards to appear. In Transactions. 13 the eyes of the law, the sad occurrence was considered a case of suicide ; but popular belief took an opposite view, and attri- buted it to the murderous act of one of Miss Craik’s brothers, who had discovered the attachment between his sister and Dunn, and in his anger at the discovery, had taken the young man’s life. It is said that Miss Craik was of the latter opinion, and that she left Arbigland and went to reside in England, never returning to the place so full to her of tragedy. The remains of Dunn were interred on the Borron Hill, and years afterwards dis- interred by a man in the neighbourhood, the skeleton being, it is said, sent to Miss Craik. With the prevailing opinion regarding this ghastly tale, it is little wonder that the apparition of the unfortunate man was said to frequent the lonely spot where he met his death. It was hardly to be expected, however, that a haunted place like this should be deserted by the white ladies so familiar in ghost stories, and whose affection for Kirkbean seems somewhat remarkable, and one of my informants speaks of a white lady who was said to appear here also. The weight of the authority (if I am justified in using such a phrase in this connec tion) is, however, almost exclusively in favour of the tradition that the apparition was that of Dunn. Between Kirkbean and Prestonmill there is a considerable stretch of road without a dwelling-house, the greater part being skirted by a wood on one side. About half-way between the two villages a small plantation exists on the opposite side to the larger wood. Here, too, the road forms a hollow, and surely no situation could have been more congenial to the tastes of such unearthly beings as those we are now considering. This was, in truth, the haunt of a ghost whose existence few at one time ever doubted ; and he was, indeed, a brave man who ventured. to walk alone on a dark night into the domains of the white lady, who was said not only to walk on the tops of the trees in the adjoining wood, but also sometimes to accompany passengers on the highway. There is in connection with the belief in this ghost an amusing tale, which has the additional merit of being true. One night a parishioner, accompanied by some of his relatives, was driving homewards, and his route Jed him through the ‘“ Howlet’s Close,” as the domains of the white lady were called. In passing through this they were much alarmed by seeing something running beside the head of the horse. Naturally enough this was supposed to be the ghost, and their 14 Transactions. state of fear may be imagined. On emerging from the darkness it was seen, however, that the cause of alarm was their own collie dog. TI have only been able to hear of one person who declared positively that he had seen this ghost. This man was driving home with his horse and cart when, as he declared to the last, he saw the white lady at the head of the horse as it passed through the darkest part of the wood. His terror was very great ; but it may be as well to say that, while his belief in this tale was genuine, it is none the less true that he was addicted to the free use of “John Barleycorn.” It is not for me to say that on this oceasion this habit made the appearance of the ghost a little apocryphal. No one seems to know the origin of this lady in white. The next ghost of which we hear is one which did not haunt the place in a visible form, but was only audible. The tenant of a farm some little distance from the place where the white lady appeared had fallen into difficulties, and, rather than face his creditors, committed suicide. The deed was viewed with even greater horror than would have been the case at the present time, and it was difficult to persuade anyone to stay in the house while the remains were in it. Three men living in the neigh- bourhood at last consented, and were sitting in the kitchen, while they kept their vigil, and talking at times of the dead man and his doings, or reviewing the ordinary news of the district. While they were thus occupied a footstep was heard in the passage, and to their horror it sounded like that of the suicide. So struck with fear were they that for a time no one would venture from the kitchen, and meanwhile the footstep seemed to go to the foot of the stair leading to the rooms above, and to return along the passage. At last one of the men, more courageous than the rest, said, ‘‘ In the strength o’ God, I'll gaun up the hoose,” and mustering up his courage went along the passage to the room where the corpse lay. He saw and heard nothing on the way, and found the body as it had been left, and without any sign of having been disturbed. For years this “uncanny ” sound was heard occasionally, to the great alarm of those in the house who thought they heard it. One woman, whose son told me the tale, was in the house alone, her employers and fellow-servants being out when she heard the footstep coming along the passage to the foot of the stair and returning. She appears to have had less timidity than many, for she not only Transactions. 15 went into the passage, but searched the rooms and a place where wood was stored, and could see no one. It is not within the scope of this paper to endeavour to explain these things. They are given as they were related to me. Nearly half-way between Prestonmill and Mainsriddell is a lonely and gloomy part of the road known as the “ How o’ the Derry’s Hills,” more briefly the ‘“ Derry’s How,” or, in English, the “Dairymaid’s Hollow.” This place was haunted by an unearthly thing in the form of a black dog—a common enough form in demonology. There seems also to have been a belief that this “ bogle,” as it was called, assumed various forms, and one dark night when three women were passing along the road at this place they were alarmed by a strange rushing sound which seemed to come over the hedge to cross the road, and then go over the hedge on the side opposite to that by which it entered. Two of the women, unhesitatingly affirmed that it was ‘the bogle,” but the third, who had little faith in the supernatural, thought it might perhaps have been one of the peacocks from the adjacent farm of Torrorie. A medical man who lived in one of the neighbouring villages, and whose profession caused him to traverse the district at all hours, used to say that one night in going through the “‘ Derry’s How” he saw the form of a lady dressed in white. The only other ghost I have been able to hear of frequented a field called the ‘“ Murder Fall,” above Torrorie. This ghost is said to have been that of a man who had been hanged in this field, and whose appearance, to say the least of it, must have been a little singular. When seen he had a pair of “cleps” round his neck. ‘‘Cleps” are moveable handles which were placed on large pots, such as those formerly used for wash- ing purposes, or for boiling pig’s-meat. Nothing seems to have been known of who this man was, or what was his offence. As showing that ghosts were generally believed to follow upon deeds of violence, the following incident may perhaps be appositely given now :—A tradesman in the parish had, in a moment of passion, struck his apprentice a blow with his hammer, which is said to have caused the death of the lad. From that time the man dared not enter his workshop after dark lest he should be confronted by the ghost of the dead apprentice. More than this, for at least some years after the sad occurrence he would not fall asleep at night if he knew there was even the smallest quantity of water in the house. He was afraid that he might be 16 Transactions. drowned while asleep, as a punishment for the fatal blow he had given. Up to the time of writing this I have only been able to hear one instance of the appearance of the apparition of a living person—an omen which was believed to foretell death or disaster to the person whose vision was seen. A man, who was going towards a farm house to call at the house of one of the cotmen, saw, as he imagined, the ‘cotman’s wife come from the house towards a stream which flowed close by, and return with water, He followed at once, and on entering the house saw the woman at work baking. He was astonished to see her at work in such an incredibly short time, and remarked to the woman that she had surely been very quick. The woman asked what he meant, and on being informed said she had not been out of the house. Unfortunately the misfortune which was believed to follow such an apparition has not been recorded in this case. Tradition tells not only of a reputed witch just over the border of an adjoining parish, but who, so far as [ can learn, was innocent, but also of one who seems to have traded upon her reputation as such. Some of the parishioners would have gone a long way out of their paths to avoid meeting her for fear of her evil eye. One of the tales told about this woman was that one day a party of sportsmen from Cavens were shooting on Criffel, and one of the party observed a hare sitting on a large granite boulder. Levelling his gun at the hare he fired, and it fell over behind the boulder. On going to pick up his game no hare was to be found, but in its stead was the witch, who was standing rubbing her thigh. The belief was that she had taken the form of a hare, and had thus deceived the sportsmen. Another tale, which is, I believe, quite true, shows how deep was the belief in her super- natural powers. Curling was in progress in the parish, and the devotees of the “ roaring game ” were anxious that their pleasure should not be interfered with by a thaw. One enthusiast, who occupied no unimportant position in the parish, and who was a devout believer in the supernatural, went to the old woman and promised her a pair of new shoes on condition that she secured them three days’ hard frost. The three days’ frost succeeded, the shoes were given, and belief in the old woman’s powers was greatly strengthened. One of my informants gravely assured me that he had seen the shoes himself. The same curler when taking = Transactions. 17 part in a match for the silver snuff-box, which is the coveted prize in the parish club, was in the habit of asking this woman to throw snowballs or a broom after him for luck as he went over the hill just beyond Kirkbean on his way to the pond. The fairy lore is exceedingly meagre, and only relates to the appearance of the “little folk” at one particular time and in one locality. On Hallowe’en night the fairies were said to pass, with drums beating, in procession through the village of Prestonmill, and to repair to a neighbouring mound called Hangman Hill, on which, as I said in my paper on the antiquities of the parish, a kist vaen had been found. Here they passed the night dancing, only dis- persing at dawn of day. A curious piece of folklore is the legend relating to the existence of a large diamond on Criffel. It is many years since I heard this for the first time when staying at Southerness. The story is that seamen on board vessels coming up the Solway can, on clear nights, see the gleaming of a large diamond, which is lying on Criffel, but although it can be seen a long distance off, when searched for it cannot be found, although the search may be most carefully made. As a matter of course, no consideration is given to the matter-of-fact reasoning which would point out that a diamond which could be visible so far off must be of dimensions which would make the Koh-inoor and even larger gems pale into insignificance. If anything of the nature of a brilliant light is seen it is probably due to that of the moon glittering on some granite block or some small streamlet flowing over a boulder, a sight less likely to excite the cupidity of the observer, but immeasurably more full of delight to the lover of the beautiful than any diamond, however brilliant it may be. With this legend I close meanwhile, leaving to a future time, if you will allow me that pleasure, the story of the remaining folk- lore, including tne lucky and unlucky omens and miscellaneous superstitions, which it takes some time to collect. Singularly enough, as it seems to me, this little parish, laved by the waters of the restless Solway, which has claimed its many victims in storm and in cali, seems to have no traditions of ghosts which haunt the Firth, nor of the visions which in other waters have lured to destruction those who risk the dangers of the deep. 18 Transactions. 3. Recollections of Dumfries 60 years ago. By Dr Rozert Hipsertr Taytor, Liverpool. One of my earliest recollections of Dumfries is in 1820, being taken into the town to see the illuminations for Queen Caroline’s acquittal, The town must have been very loyal to the Queen, as the illuminations and rejoicing were very general. Another early recollection is having witnessed the procession of “King Crispin,’ when all the assembled trades, in gala attire, and bearing the various emblems of their crafts, walked in procession through the principal streets of the town. The royal crown was borne upon a velvet cushion, and a champion in full armour rode before his majesty, and defied the world to question his legal rights. Bands of music, and gorgeous flags and banners of various forms and devices, accompanied the triumphal march, and all went “‘merrie as a marriage bell.” The festival was a great event for youthful spectators, and, indeed, it excited the curiosity and awoke the sympathy of the entire civic population. I am afraid that the conclusion of the spectacle was not always so orderly and edifying as the commencement, and that the enthusiasm with which the ‘“king’s” health was drank not infrequently run to excess under the inspiring influence of “John Barleycorn.” The pageant of “King Crispin” was, I believe, enacted at stated intervals of years, but has long since passed away and been forgotten, except by those whose memories are as far-reaching as my own. Mr Starke of Troqueer Holm says that he saw the “Crispin” procession in 1863. On one occasion after the celebration of some civic festivity and procession, a local poet is said to have given vent to his feelings in the following lines, containing an arithmetical com- putation which would puzzle even Cocker himself to unrayvel— Before the foremost walked with great respect Convener Deacon Alexander Affleck ; Next unto him walked the hammer-men, In twos and twos, twice four equal to ten. Another festival in which the Dumfriesians always took a lively interest is what was known as shooting for the “Siller Gun.” This object was a small model in silver of a gun or pistol, presented to the town by King James VI., to encourage the use of firearms, and was awarded to the best shot at a target when Transactions. 19 the prize was competed for. The» contest took place at stated intervals, every seven years I believe, and the scene of action was the Kingholm, as affording suitable space for the erection of targets, and the accommodation of the numerous combatants and spectators who usually assembled. How far this practice tended to enhance the skill of the marksmen in handling the musket I cannot say, but I have been told that a spectator of the fray cynically remarked that he thought the target was the safest place in the field. The last occasion on which the “Siller Gun” was competed for on the Kingholm was, according to Mr M‘Dowall, in 1828. Buta more recent competition took place elsewhere in 1831, when it was finally won by Deacon Alexander Johnston, and was carried by him in the great procession which took place in the burgh at the celebration of Burns’ Centenary. In the olden times of which I now write, the streets of Dum- fries were lighted with oil lamps, a very imperfect mode of illumination compared with the brilliant gas and electricity of the present day. The little “winkies” were made to display their feeble glimmer by a town functionary, who, armed with a flaming torch and a short ladder, ascended each lamp post in succession, and applied the needful fire. This useful citizen was an. object of much interest and jocularity to the “small boys” of the town, who used to follow him shouting—“ Leary, leary, licht the lamps; lang legs and short shanks.” The trimming of the lamps, which took place next morning, was rather a comical performance, at least so I used to think. “ Leary ” ascended his ladder as before at each post, provided with a can of oil and a pair of scissors. The tin cover of the lamp was then removed, and, to leave his hands at liberty, was usually placed on the top of his hat, while he trimmed the wick and filled the shallow oil vessel. My early recollections of Dumfries watchmen are derived from the experience of a night occasionally spent at the house of a relative who resided in the burgh. The guardian of the night was armed with a lantern, and as he passed along on his tour of inspection announced in loud tones the hour of night, accom- panied with certain meteorological observations regarding the state of the atmosphere, and the general appearance of the heavens. Thus, I have heard the following announcement— “« Past ten o'clock ; a fine starry night.” 20 Transactions. Another object of interest on these occasions was the passing of the Portpatrick mail coach, which used to leave the town at ten o'clock in the evening. It halted at the Post Office, at the top of Buccleuch Street, to take up the letter bags; and then, with sound of horn and flash of lamps, if the season was late, and trampling of hurrying steeds, it swept down the street, and disappeared in the darkness of the night, a passing vision of wonder and delight to the youthful imagination. A notable character in the burgh at this time was the ‘ town crier,” John Crosbie, who, I have been told, undertook the office more for the love of it than from any necessity. He was always neatly and comfortably dressed, and had a dignified and important air, which consorted well with his vocation. Being on friendly terms with an old lady, a relative of mine who resided in Buccleuch Street, he was in the habit of drawing up in front of her house, and after pealing his bell to invite attention, he would deliver the tidings he had to communicate in a loud and sententious manner, and concluding abruptly, would wheel about and proceed on his round. I have heard him announce the sale of salmon at the ‘fish cross” at sixpence the pound, a price unknown at the present day. Another frequenter of the streets, but of a very different type, was a poor haif-witted man named “Jamie Pagan.” He would be seen at times wandering aimlessly along, clad in garments which might have been borrowed from a ‘ potato bogle,” with a battered misshapen hat stuck on one side of his head. The children would sometime shout after him, but he was a harmless creature, and did not seem to mind them. Among the various shopkeepers whom I remember, and who as being public characters and worthy citizens I may name without offence, were Thomas Milligan, a tinsmith, usually known by the significant cognomen of “Tin Tam ;” his shop was near the “New Kirk ;’ John Anderson, the bookseller, in High Street, whose shop was the well-known resort of the /uterata of the town; Robert Watt, an ironmonger, who was located opposite the Midsteeple, and Andrew Montgomery, a popular baker, who was on the other side of the same Steeple. On the Plainstones were William Howat, a draper; John Sinclair, a bookseller; and Peter Mundell, a tobacconist, who afterwards became laird of Bogrie, and attained to civic honours. Messrs Gregan & Creighton conducted an Transactions. Dil excellent cabinet making business. Their handiwork was made to last, not merely to sell, for | have sundry specimens of it in my possession at the present time, as good as when put together, more than sixty years ago. The shopkeepers in those days must have made money, for in after years I recognised several of them comfortably located in suburban villas. The principal inn was the King’s Arms, then kept by Mr Fraser, who was afterwards Provost of the burgh. The chief medical men at this date were Doctors Maxwell, Melville, and Symons, and Mr Blacklock, a former navy surgeon. Dr Maxwell I have heard spoken of as ‘‘ Dagger Maxwell,” from some popular notion that he was favourable to the French Revolution. Those who remember Dr Melville will doubtless recollect a peculiar habit he had of hitching up his “pants” when he stopped to speak to any one in the street. They were all able men in their vocation, but differed somewhat in their mode of practice, a licence which is generally accorded to doctors, as well as to poets, without implying any disparagement to either. The clergy of the Established Church.at this period were Dr Scott of St. Michael’s, a portly looking gentleman, who in hot weather walked the street carrying his hat in his hand. Dr Duncan was the minister of the New Kirk, and the Rev. Charles Babington, an M.A. of Oxford, was the incumbent of the Episcopal Chapel. The Nonconformist body was represented by the Rev. Walter Dunlop, who was somewhat of a “character,” and was gifted with a large amount of ready humour. [I have a lively remembrance of his personal appearance—a tall stout man, with a large genial countenance, wearing a broad brimmed hat and a wide skirted coat; walking with a swinging step, and carrying a dark coloured “gamp” umbrella tucked under his arm, with the horn handle projecting from beneath his shoulder. Numerous jokes and witticisms have been laid to his charge, and some of them have appeared in print. The following anecdote concerning him was related to me by the person who was an actor in the scene, and has not, I think, been made public. The Rey. Walter, as not unfrequently happened, going one afternoon to take tea with a member of his congregation, who lived in the country, accidentally met a son of the rev. doctor of the New Kirk, and invited him to accompany him. On arriving at the farm house, he proposed to the inmates to give them “‘a prayer” before tea, as, I believe, was his custom. The gude wife excused herself 22 Transactions. from being present “ben the hoose,” as she had to attend to the frying of the ham in the kitchen; but Mr Dunlop obviated the difficulty by saying that she could leave the door, open between the apartments, and so would benefit by his ministrations, while at the same time she attended to her duties in the kitchen. This plan was adopted, and Mr Dunlop so managed as to conclude his devotions just as the ham was heard to give the concluding frizzle. On their way home in the evening, Mr Dunlop remarked to his companion—‘‘ Mr Tammas, did ye notice hoo I nicket the time?” Another instance of Mr Dunlop’s eccentricity I may mention, as I was present on the occasion, and heard the rey. gentleman’s remarks. When quite a youth I went one Sunday evening with my mother to hear Mr Dunlop preach, and at the conclusion of the service, which was conducted in his usual broad lowland ‘“‘ Doric,” as he descended the pulpit stair he espied my mother, and addressing her in a loud tone, audible to all about him, said—‘ Glad to see ye here, Mrs Tyler; ye'll hear nothing in this place but soon’ doctrine, according to the Shorter Catechism and the Confession o’ Faith.” Poor Wattie! I do not know what was his end, but I have heard that he lost his popularity, and was in very straitened circumstances at the close of his life. My first acquaintance with the Academy must have been previous to 1822, when I was pupil with a worthy old gentleman named Haigh, who wore a brown curled wig, and in a sort of paternal fashion instructed a number of juveniles of both sexes in the rudiments of reading and writing. One recollection I have of him was his looking over my shoulder when making some of my first essays in writing, and saying that “I need not add so many fringes to my letters.” In 1822 I joimed the Latin class then taught by Rector Harkness, a very enthusiastic person, and, I should think, an able scholar. He certainly possessed the faculty of inspiring many of his pupils with his own love of learning. I recollect that he had a large chair constructed after the pattern of the “sella curulis,” the public seat of the Roman consuls. This machine, which was ascended by steps, was placed at the top of the class, and was the coveted seat of the “‘dux,” and the cause of many an intellectual contest in order to gain the envied elevation. I have learned from one who was a pupil of the Rector’s at a later date, that he was rather severe’ in the exercise of his authority, and liberal in the use of the Transactions. 23 “tawse.” It was not so in my time; but there was a large, raw- boned usher who was much given to flagellation, and of whom I retain a very unpleasant remembrance even to this day. Among the civic notabilities whose names and appearance I can recal were the Town Clerk, Mr Francis Short, commonly known as “ Frank Short,” and Mr John Staig, whose father was Provost for many years in succession. It was the custom in those days for the chief magistrate, and some others of the civic dignitaries, to walk in procéssion to church on Sunday, preceded by two halbert men, arrayed in cocked hats and long-skirted coats, and bearing a sort of battleaxe mounted on a pole. On entering the church, these formidable-looking weapons were deposited behind the pews which the magistrates occupied in the front of the gallery. It is to be regretted, I think, that this ancient custom has been discontinued ; the appearance in public of the ‘‘ powers that be,” with a certain amount of ceremonial dignity, has a wholesome influence upon the spectators, and. may contribute in some measure to render the magistrates what they ought to be, “a terror to evil-doers, and a praise and protection to those that do well.” Another practice which prevailed at this time was the punish- ment of “rogues and vagabonds” by whipping them publicly in the streets. The culprit was tied to the end of a one-horse cart, which was paraded through the town, a halt being made at inter- vals, and the scourge applied. At the conclusion of the perform- ance, the “vagabond” was conducted to the confines of the burgh, and “drummed out of the town,” I presume to the tune of the ‘“‘rogue’s march!” JI think it must have been in recollec- tion of this salutary discipline of former days that a “ worthy magistrate” is reported to have addressed a culprit who was brought before him with the remark—“ It’s a pity whuppen is oot of fashion, or I wad gie ye a gude whuppin !” Another old- fashioned mode of punishment, applied chiefly to those who were drunken and riotous, was to immure them temporarily in a place of confinement facetiously termed the “‘ saut box,” which was located in the neighbourhood of the Midsteeple. It is reported of some unfortunate, who had been summarily placed in “ durance vile,” that he shouted through an aperture in his cell to a passing acquaintance—‘‘ Tell oor fowk that I’m here,” a rather naive mode of accounting for his non-appearance. While on the subject of law, and the maintenance of order, I 94 Transactions. may mention the name of John Richardson, a very active and intelligent sheriff’s officer of this date. On one occasion he was sent in pursuit of David Haggart, who murdered the jailer of the prison where he was confined and made his escape. John is said to have been in close proximity to Haggart in Comlongon woods without discovering him. The latter made for the shore of the Solway, near Seafield, and when Richardson, who was hard behind him, arrived on the beach, Haggart was far out in the Firth in a boat on his way to Cumberland. He was afterwards captured, and hanged at Dumfries, an event which I well remem- ber though I did not witness it. In the period of which I write the supply of water to the burgh by pipes in the houses must have been very limited, if, indeed, it was conveyed in that manner at all. Pumps and open wells were the principal sources of supply, and one named the Dock Well was a favourite resort for that purpose. Carts with Jarge water barrels also daily perambulated the streets, disposing of their contents to those who required it. When empty, they were filled again from the Nith in a most primitive manner, our worthy fornears not having apparently any fear of bacteria or other vermin, which modern science has discovered to abound in what we eat and drink and in the very air we breathe. I do not know that the citizens suffered in consequence of their ignorance, and although I do not say that in this instance, “where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise,” at all events the tranquility of life was not disturbed by apprehensions of having swallowed what might be injurious to health. Another old fashion occurs to my remembrance in the form of ‘sedan chairs,’ one of which at least existed in the burgh, owned probably by Robert M‘Clumpha, or M‘Clumphy, as he was always applied to when it was required, and acted as the principal bearer. I once had the honour of riding in a “sedan ” with my grandmother. Externally it was a rather dismal sentry box looking machine, being covered with black leather, but inside it was comfortable enough, and the motion was not un- pleasant as it jogged along at a semi-trot pace, supported on long poles, with a bearer in front and another behind. The “sedan ” was convenient in this respect, that it could be carried inside the house for the reception of the intended occupant, who afterwards stepped out in full costume for an evening party at the place of destination. I am rather surprised that it should have fallen Transactions. 25 into disuse as, on certain occasions, it possessed sundry advan- tages, especially for ladies, over the modern vehicles on wheels. The elderly ladies in those days frequently went out to tea with their neighbours at an early hour in the afternoon, preceded in winter by a “lass with a lantern,” and in rainy weather both mistress and maid wore “ pattens,” a kind of shoe with a rim of iron beneath, which raised the foot a couple of inches from the ground. The six o’clock evening bell was always rung from the steeple of the New Kirk, and often indicated the hour for tea, as well as called the labourers from their daily work —an ancient custom associated with many pleasant memories, and probably continued still. ' In former years floods in the Nith were not infrequent, especially at the fall of the year, and sometimes they were both sudden and unexpected. In the course of twelve hours, or less» the river would rise and overflow its banks to a great extent, and flood the streets and houses in the lower part of the town. I remember to have seen a boat navigating what was the Brewery Street, and rescuing the inhabitants from their dwellings ; and a worthy son of “Crispin,” who bore the appropriate name of Shanks, informed me that on getting out of bed one dark autumn morning he found himself nearly up to his knees in water, from a sudden spate in the Nith which had flooded his dwelling. Quan- tities of debris, of a very miscellaneous character, were often seen on these occasions floating down the stream—remnants of hay and peat stacks, sheaves of grain, yards of wooden paling, with an occasional sheep, were swept along by the current, and finally shattered as they plunged over the cascade of the Caul. T cannot bring these brief sketches of the former manners and customs of Dumfries to a close without some reference to the aquatic performances of the boys who used in summer to throng the banks of the mill-dam on the Galloway side of the river. Hundreds of youths must have acquired the useful art of swim- ming in that rapid current, and some of the young adepts always stood ready to dive, on the shortest notice, for any small coin which might be thrown for their benefit into the water. Another memory of later date occurs to me in the existence of a notable character in the town, usually known as Jock Brodie. He was a tall, dark, handsome-looking man, and had an evil reputation as a poacher. However that may be, he was at least a dealer in game, and much patronised by those who were in { = 26 Transactions. need of it. In his later days he became, I believe, an altered man, and a highly respectable character, a living example of the truth of the adage—“ It is never too late to mend.” I may allude, in conclusion, to a custom which prevailed in my early days in the mode of washing clothes. The young women of the middle class used to come down to the Greensands provided with wooden tubs. These were placed near the river, and half filled with water. The garments to be washed were then put into them, and the owners taking off their shoes and stockings, and tucking up their petticoats, stepped into the tubs, and trampled the clothes, turning round and round during the process. When the water became dirty, I suppose it was emptied out and a fresh supply added, and when the operation was com- pleted, the clothes were spread out upon the grass to dry. This primitive fashion probably would not comport with the more refined notions of the present day, and besides the same end can be attained by other and more effective means. There are three worthy persons connected with Dumfries, of whom I remember to have heard a good deal in my youth. Though not public characters, yet as they are long since ‘gathered to their fathers,” and all that can be said of them is good, I may be permitted without offence to mention their names. They are—Robert Gillies, Miss Gordon of Earlston, usually known as ‘“ Miss Willy Gordon,” and Miss Jane Goldie of Sum- merhill. They were all eminent for their Christian character and their practical good works. Gillies was, I believe, a trades- man in the burgh, and was remarkable for his zeal in originating and conducting Sunday Schools for the benefit of the young. Miss Goldie was, I believe, the founder of the Greensands School, to which so many children have been indebted for their religious and secular education. 14th December, 1894. Mr Rosert Murray in the Chair. New Members.—Mr John Millar Crabbie, Duncow ; Captain Robert Cutlar Fergusson, Craigdarroch; and Miss M‘Kie, Moat House. Donatrons.—Report of Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1892 (2 vols.) ; Report of U.S. Geological Survey, 1892 (4 vols.) ; Transactions. 27 Proceedings of Nova Scotian Institute of Science, 1893; Tran- sactions of Edinburgh Geological Society ; Transactions of Botani cal Society of Edinburgh. CoMMUNICATIONS. | 1. Motes on the Antiquities of Dunscore. By the Rev. Ricuarp Simpson, B.D. | The position of Dunscore among the hills--placesit_far out of _ the stream of the busy world’s activities as it flows to-day, but in former times those secluded glens and bleak uplands were the scene of many an incident worthy of remembrance, and had an influence all their own on the course of events. Few country parishes are richer in associations with the history and the literature of our native land. Dunscore counts as its own names that are celebrated all the world over, and reverenced and loved wherever men read and think, and wherever there glows the flame of poetry or of patriotism. The strongest and sternest blood of the Covenant, as well as the most active and hated of the persecutors, came from within its bounds. It was in Dunscore that Burns made “a poet’s, not a farmer’s choice,” when he preferred Ellisland to Foregirth, and settled down to write the very best of his poetry and spend the happiest and most prosperous days of his troubled life. In Dunscore Scott found one of his feudal castles, and laid there the scene of the grim episode in ‘“‘ Redgauntlet.” And it was on the western border of the parish, with the far outlook from Craigenputtock over the wilds of Galloway always before him, that Carlyle hammered out the pure gold of “Sartor Resartus” on the anvil of his own soul. There is a singular vitality about words ; and a good deal may be learned about the history of any locality from its place names. Through this medium Dunscore is connected with the earliest period of our national life of which we have any knowledge. Leaving out of consideration a group of modern invention and barbarous taste, the majority of our names are of Celtic origin. One or two are English, and there are traces of Norse or Danish. The Celtic names seem to be survivals of the time when our uplands were included within the ancient kingdom of Galloway, and the others are marks left by the successive waves of invasion that beat against its frontiers. As is the case with most ancient 28 Transactions. names—whatever their language—they are descriptive of natural features. Dwnscore itself is dian sgor—the hill with the steep rock. Lag means a hollow, and Laggan, a little hollow. Kilroy is the red corner, the name being the only relic of some forgotten tragedy. Stroguhan is a stony place—a name which would quite correctly describe the whole parish. Craigenputtock, as we have all learned from Carlyle, is the rock of the wild hawk. Cat’s Craig, a name which occurs twice in the parish, does not require to be explained. rwm means a ridge, and here the name is the very picture of the place. Srvyrte is the neck of the hill, where the summit dips and rises again, forming a pass. These are all of very early date. Belonging to a later time we have those well-known marks of ecclesiastical possession— Merkland, Shillingland, and Poundland, telling of the days when the monastery of Holywood owned all the land in the valley of the Cairn, and even as far as Glaisters, beyond the boundaries of the parish to the west. Jriars’ Carse recalls to mind the Monks of Melrose, who possessed the rich holms of the Nith for centuries; and Monkland, a name recently revived, belongs originally to their day. Hillisland, it is ingeniously suggested by a well-known archzologist, who is a member of this Society, is from Isle. It is the Laird of Isle his land, Isle’s Land, Ailisland, Ellisland. But a great number of our Dunscore names ave quite unlike these comely and dignified survivors of the past. They are as hideous as the modern appellatives of the Far West. In the Sibbald Manuscript in the Advocates’ Library (W. 5. 17.) we are told that ‘the Cunninghames, Earles of Glencarne, being superiour to the whole parish, excepting a Barony or two, did divide his property amongst his jackmen for the greater part of it, into several tenements, bearing the name of the first occupants, which denominations; though the lands be now possessed by those of other names, yet they do still retain as at first, as Blackstown, Inglistown, Crawfordtown, Stewartown, Gilmorestown, Gordonstown, Garriokstown, and some others more.” The evil example of Glencairn was followed in Dunscore and other places. We know not what graphic names of an earlier age these hideous compounds supplanted, but we could have forgiven the Harl of Glencairn in question if he had only had the grace to leave well alone. It is little comfort to know Transactions. 29 that his offence is written down in history, and that he himself is classed among the Goths and the Vandals. Passing from names to things, our interest does not grow less. Belonging to a remote antiquity, the Lake Dwelling at Friars’ Carse carries us away back to a period before any history of our country began to be written. The island in the middle of the loch that lies close to the highway was long used as a place of refuge in times of danger. In the days of the Border raids the peaceful fraternity of monks, from whom Friars’ Carse derives its name, were often hard put to it to bestow their goods and gear where the wild reivers of Cumberland could not lay hands upon them. That little island was their safe hiding-place. At the first signal of danger, they conveyed their effects thither by a path through the water known only to themselves. No enemy suspected that the little wooded island concealed what they so greatly desired to carry away, and if any attempted to ford the narrow strip of water, the black yielding mud soon warned them of their danger, and caused them to desist. It was not generally known that this island refuge had been constructed by human hands; but in 1878, when the late Mr Thomas Nelson partially drained the loch, the structure was laid bare. It was then seen to be one of the artificial lake- dwellings built two thousand years ago or more as a place of safety by the original inhabitants of the land. A mass of stout oak beams rests upon the bottom of the loch, which cannot be less than 15 or 16 feet in depth, and forms an island of oval shape measuring 80 by 70 feet. On this island huts were erected, traces of the partitions of which remain. Near the middle there was a circle of small stones forming a rude pave- ment, evidently designed to protect the foundation of oaken logs from fire. A canoe, hollowed out of a single tree-trunk, and the paddle by which it was rowed, were found imbedded in the mud, showing how the people who lived on the island went to and fro. A stone axe and some fragments of pottery remained to show what sort of people they were, and give some indication of their habits and ways of life. Further relics might have been found, but for a singular and untoward accident which befell the rubbish removed from the surface of the oak pavement. As this was dug away, it was wheeled to what seemed a place of safety, where it was to remain until it could be carefully turned over and examined. (ne morning, however, the precious heap was 30 Transactions. found to have disappeared. The apparently solid ground was only a matted crust of mud and roots resting on the surface of the water. The great and constantly increasing weight caused the crust to give way, and the whole mass sank out of sight and out of reach in the soft black mud at the bottom of the loch. The loss is distinctly to be regretted, but in spite of it, the Friars’ Carse lake dwelling remains one of the most interesting spots in the parish. Many traces still exist of the occupation of the Lowlands of Scotland by the Roman legions seventeen or eighteen hundred years ago. Besides some indication of the roads they constructed, the remains of two of their forts are to be found in Dunscore. One of them occupies a picturesque site on the farm of Sundaywell. Distinctly visible from Sundaywell, yet six miles distant as the crow flies, is the Camp of Springfield Hill. It is smaller, but even more difficult to approach than the former, and its three lines of fortification are much more clearly marked. The view from Springfield Hill is of wide extent, commanding the whole of Nithsdale from the Lowthers to the Solway, and taking in a long stretch of the Cumberland shore. Over the shoulder of the Tinwald Hills is seen the square top of Burnswark, an important military centre in the days of the Roman occupation. Signals could be made between these two places, or passed on by Springfield Hill from Sundaywell to Burnswark. By means of stations such as these, widely apart, yet within signalling distance, the conquered country was effectually kept in order, until troubles in other quarters compelled the generals of the Empire first to withdraw their forces within the line of Hadrian’s wall between the Solway and the Tyne, and then, in the reign of Honorius, finally to abandon Britain. The people of former days knew how to build so that time and decay should have little power to mar their work. More than two hundred years have passed since the old tower of Lag ceased to be a place of human habitation, yet its walls still stand grimly defiant of wind and weather as once they were of English bow and spear. It was built at a very early date. The mound which was chosen as its site was then in the middle of a lake, and thus the solid square keep was a safe retreat in the unsettled days of the Border raids. It was several storeys high, each with a vaulted roof, and there were round turrets at the Transactions. 31 four corners. The cottages of the chief's retainers clustered about it, and these were enclosed within a strong outer wall, whose great gate, with lofty circular arch only recently destroyed, faced the north. In 1532 the tower suffered from fire, but it was restored, and continued to be inhabited for another century and a half. Lag was the ancestral home of the Griersons, a family that occupied a distinguished position in Nithsdale for many genera- tions. They come into authentic history in the fifteenth century. At Sauchieburn, where in 1488 the unfortunate King James ITI. was defeated, and later in the day treacherously murdered, Roger Grierson, who fought on the rebel side, was wounded. Another Roger after him fell at Flodden, 1513. About the same time John Grierson was principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, and head of the Dominican Order of Friars in this country. In 1593 fifty-four horsemen under Grierson of Lag took the side of Lord Maxwell, as Warden of the Western Marches, in the encounter with the Johnstones of Annandale at Dryfe Sands. But the most noted of the race was Sir Robert Grierson, who was born at Dalskairth, Troqueer, in 1655, succeeded to the estates of Lag and Rockhall in 1669, was made a Baronet in 1685, and died in Dumfries in 1733. 1n the persecutions he was more feared than even Claverhouse himself. He was responsible for the drowning of Margaret M‘Lachlan and Margaret Wilson in the rising tide where the Bladenoch falls into Wigtown Bay, and for the execution of Edward Gordon and Alexander M‘Cubbin at Haugh Hill, near the church of Irongray. The memory of Lag, the persecutor, continued to be held in such odium that when his great-grand-daughter wished to place a monument over his grave in the old churchyard of Dunscore, she was compelled to abandon her intention by the strong expression of popular feeling against it. This Laird of Lag was the prototype of Sir Robert Red- gauntlet in the weird episode, ‘‘Wandering Willie’s Tale,” in Sir Walter Scott’s novel. Redgauntlet Castle stands for the old Tower of Lag itself. The Wood of Pitmurkie, “ that is a’ fou 0’ black firs,’ where Steenie the Piper met the mysterious horse- man, was in the Glen of Laggan. It is now called Crolo Wood, and its reputation as an uncanny place still survives in the fear » that the rustics have to pass that way after dark, And “the on Transactions. auld kirkyard of Redgauntlet,” where Steenie found himself after his strange adventures, “lying just at the door of the family aisle, and the scutcheon of the auld knight, Sir Robert, hanging over his head,” is the old churchyard of Dunscore, which holds Lag’s unhonoured grave. The tower of Sundaywell, now part of a modern farm house, is the only one remaining of several conspicuous strongholds in Glenesslin. It is a survival of the days when every landowner dwelt in his own fortress. Then the great forest which gave its name to the parish of Holywood extended up the valley of the Cairn and into Glenesslin. Like the Forest of Sherwood, it gave shelter to many an outlaw. In the days of some early Stewart king, a notorious robber named Culton infested the neighbour- hood. A reward was offered for his head, and three brothers named Kirkhoe or Kirk, on their way to the haymaking early one summer morning, surprised him asleep under a tree and des- patched him with -their pitchforks. The spot where Culton was slain is still called Culton’s Neuk. It is near Garrieston, in the parish of Glencairn, and close to the road leading from Glenesslin along the western bank of the Cairn to Moniaive. As a reward, the reigning monarch granted to the three brothers the lands of Chapel, Bogrie, and Sundaywell. If the brother who received the estate of Chapel ever built a residence, it may be that it is marked by the heap of ruins on the farm of Kenmorehead, evidently at one time a place of importance ; but its history and even its name are forgotten. A discovery of lead piping, made in 1860 when the adjoining field was being drained, shows that pains were taken to supply it with water, and confirms the traditional belief that some place of strength once existed there. For centuries the Kirkhoes or Kirks of Bogrie and Sunday- well bore an honourable name in the district. They were connected by marriage with the Griers or Griersons of Dalgoner —a younger branch of the Griersons of Lag—with the Gordons of Glaisters, the Welshes of Colliston, of Scarre, and of Cornilie, the Fergussons of Isle, and the Riddles of Glenriddel. In the times of persecution they were favourable to the side of the Covenant, and the fugitives from the dragoons of Claverhouse and Lag often found shelter in their strongholds. The existing tower of Sundaywell was built by James. Kirko, who in 1647 succeeded his father, John Kirko, ‘in the seven merk land of Sundaywall,” as the old retour has it. He is the Transactions. 33 most famous of the family, and would seem to have been an elder in the parish kirk of Dunscore. Referring to the Restora- tion of Monarchy in 1660 in the person of King Charles IL., Wodrow says of him—‘“ This public-spirited gentleman, and Andrew Hay of Craignethan, had the honour to be.the two ruling elders who were present with Maister James Guthrie and other ministers when they met in the house of Robert Simpson in Edinburgh at the Restoration of Charles the Second to agree in an Address to the King, and was thereby imprisoned for some months.” (Wod. I. 7. 21.) Soon after, Mr Archibald, minister of Dunscore, was by his Presbytery deputed to go to Edinburgh to present a petition to the Earl of Glencairn, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, for the release of the Rev. John Welsh of Irongray, James Kirko of Sundaywall, and others then in prison—a rather riskish commission in the nature of things as they then stood. A copy of the petition stands in the Presby- tery records of Dumfries under the date 9th September, 1660, and on the 20th of November in the same year the Clerk of the Presbytery of Dumfries reports that a letter had been received, wherein Mr Archibald of Dunscore declares that he had duly delivered the said petition, and also that up to the date of this, his letter, there had been no reply received. This boldness was not forgotten, for Mr Archibald was one of the 400 ministers declared to have no right to their benefices because they had’ been elected by the Kirk Sessions—a practice followed between 1649 and 1660—and not by the lawful patrons, and ejected in 1662 because they would not seek to receive a presentation from the patron, and institution from the bishop of the diocese. He continued to hold field meetings although ejected from his charge, and it is recorded of his widow, Elizabeth Key, that when she died in 1689 she left one hundred marks for the benefit of the poor of Dunscore. Imprisonment did not make any change in James Kirko’s sympathy for the Covenanters. Sundaywell became a favourite resort of the ejected ministers. The famous John Blackadder, of Troqueer, was in the habit of visiting and preaching there. He was Kirko’s guest at the time of the c+lebrated communion held on Skeoch Hill in Irongray in 1678, and preached the preparation sermon on the Saturday preceding at the “ Preach- ing Walls,” of which the ruins still remain on the farm of Newhouse in Holywood. The officiating ministers were—J ohn a) 34 Transactéous. Welsh of Irongray, John Blackadder of Troqueer, John Dickson of Rutherglen, and Samuel Arnot of Tongland, and it cannot be doubted that the laird of Sundayweil acted as an elder. The house of Sundaywell, as he built it, is still standing—a square tower with very thick walls. The arched doorway has been built up. Over the present doorway is a square stone with the initials I. K. and 8. W. carved at the top, and at the foot the date 1651. Between is a shield, bearing three lozenges over a St. Andrew’s Cross. The initials are those of James Kirko, who built the tower, and of his wife, a relative of John Welsh, minister of Irongray. The tower of Bogrie was taken down in 1860, and its stones used to make repairs on the farm steading. It was larger and stronger than that at Sundaywell. Three stones in the walls of the existing dwelling-house bear interesting testimony to its history. Over an arched doorway, similar to that at Sundaywell, is a stone with elaborate armorial bearings carved on it. It shows a shield with three boars’ heads quartered with a thistle and a dagger, and over it the motto, “‘ Fear God.” Above this is another stone, partially defaced, but showing the date 1770. At the other side of the house is a third stone with the initials I. K. and I. M.—those of John Kirko and his wife—and the date 1660. The ancient yew-trees near the house of Bogrie are a striking feature on the landscape. Within a few hundred yards are two ring-shaped circular mounds, described as ancient British forts, as well as the site of the important Roman camp to which I have alluded. In the “Scots Worthies” it is erroneously stated that Colliston, the original home of the Welsh family, is in Irongray. _It is in Glenesslin of Dunscore, not far from Bogrie and Sunday- well. The Welshes held a more prominent position than even the Kirkhoes in the history of the Reformed Church. Dumfries and Tynron, as well as Dunscore, were ministered to by clergymen of that name. It was a Welsh of Colliston who became son-in- law to John Knox—the same who is known as minister of Ayr—and it was his grandson who became minister of Irongray, and, when ejected from his charge, organised and presided at the great Conventicle held in his own parish in 1678. Of the old house of Qolliston no trace now remains. The Welshes of Craigenputtock, of whom the last representative was Jane Transactions’ 35 Welsh Carlyle, belong to the more recent times of the family history. A very considerable portion of the parish consisted originally of church lands, possessed by the monastery of Sacrinemoris or Holywood, and the monastery of Melrose, as represented by the establishment at Friars’ Carse. As far back as the year 1257 a dispute arose between the rival Abbots concerning their respective rights to the church of Dunscore. The controversy was referred to the Bishop of Glasgow, who decided in favour of Holywood, while the Abbots of Melrose were confirmed in the right to the tithes of their own Monkiands in Stranith. In those days the church of Dunscore was situated at the eastern end of the parish, where the old churchyard is, and there was a chapel in Glenesslin to meet the wants of the people of the outlying hill country to the west. This arrangement seems to have been continued after the Reformation—perhaps until 1649, when the newer church of Dunscore was built at the village of Cottack, near the middle of the parish, now better known as Dunscore Village. No trace of the old church remains, and the old manse, whose site was near the present gate-lodge of Isle, has also entirely disappeared. The existing manse was erected in 1814. In its eastern gable is preserved a stone from its predecessor on the same site, bearing the inscription—‘“ In usum Pastorum Dunscoriensium edificari Curavit Jo: Dickie Past: 1740.” The church of 1649 was replaced in 1823 by the present more commodious structure. The massive square tower is a con- spicuous feature of the landscape, and may be seen from a great distance, so that, like the Kirk of Shotts, it is often alluded to as “the visible church.” It attracted from afar the eye of Carlyle on the memorable day of Emerson’s visit, when the two philosophers climbed together the heathery steeps of Craigen- puttock Hill, talking of the immortality of the soul, and Carlyle made the remark, ‘‘ Christ died on the Tree: that built Dunscore Kirk yonder: that brought you and me together. Time has only a relative existence.” The church itself looks down on two picturesque valleys—Glenesslin due west, and Glencairn to the north, the latter showing the circle of dark yews that mark the site of Glenriddel Castle, and the lovely green braes of Maxwel- ton, the home of Annie Laurie. Built into a corner of the tower is a stone hollowed out to form a cup or bowl, which is 36 Transactions. said to have been used as a baptismal font. In another corner is an interesting relic of the old church, a stone bearing the words, ‘“‘ How amiable are Thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts !” and the date 1649, Of the chapel and churchyard at Glenesslin no authentic traces remain except in the name of the farm called ‘‘ Chapel.” Tt was at Ellisland—himself being umpire—that Burns wrote the best of his poetry, and there he spent the happiest period of his short life. Those three years and a half were full of promise. The wild oats seemed to have been sown, and unsettled youth developed into full, strong manhood. There was fierce physical energy displayed in the building of the new house and the reclaiming of the untilled fields; and the teeming brain was no less active. Memories of the past in Ayrshire were often with him, causing bis heart to sing of the “‘ Banks of Doon” and “ Auld Langsyne.” Affectionate sadness over friendships interrupted by death inspired the “‘ Lament for the Earl of Glencairn” and the ode “To Mary in Heaven.” Then the keen, irrepressible Scottish humour broke out again in “Tam o’ Shanter,” “The Jolly Beggars,” “The Whistle,” and many a song in praise of that good fellowship, which brought about his ruin in the end. Visitors to Ellisland are told that the house is that which the poet built, but this is doubtful. Mr Taylor, into whose hands the property passed in 1805, dismantled and remodelled the whole steading. The site is a beautiful one on the western bank of the Nith. From the river the ground slopes gently back to a lofty ridge more than a mile away, on one of the highest points of which Springfield Hill Camp is perched. A mile to the south of Ellisland stands the ivied tower of Isle, side by side with the modern mansion house. It was to one of the cottages at the Isle that Burns brought Jean Armour from her home in Mauchline, and there they lived tili the house at — Ellisland was ready, and they went forth with much ceremony to take possession. Scarcely as far up the stream is Friars’ Carse, so named from its former possessors, the Monks of Melrose. In Burns’s time it was the residence of Riddel of Glenriddel, who took a great interest in the farmer poet. Here Burns met Captain Grose, at whose suggestion he wrote “Tam 0’ Shanter,” to be printed in the famous antiquary’s book opposite an engraving of Alloway Kirk. Here, too, was the Hermitage, in a secluded corner of the woods, with memorials of Transactions. Si its medieval origin all around—an ideal place for studious meditation. When the late Mr Thomas Nelson came into possession of Friars’ Carse, he found the Hermitage in ruins. The window was gone, the roof had fallen in, and the walls were crumbling to pieces. With great good taste he restored the little building, and placed in it a new window similar to the old, on which the same verses are inscribed in facsimile of the poet’s singularly clear and beautiful handwriting. The mansion-house of Friars’ Carse occupies a lovely situation on the banks of the Nith. The house as Burns knew it was built in 1772, and still stands; bunt the additions made by the late Mr Nelson have improved and beautitied it almost beyond recognition. Its dining-room was the scene of the ignoble contest celebrated in “The-Whistle.” Its hall contains a singularly beautiful piece of sculpture—the original cast for the monument by Watson erected in the Savoy Chapel, in memory of Dr Archibald Cameron, who acted as a surgeon at Culloden on the side of “Bonnie Prince Charlie.” After seven years of exile Cameron returned to Scotland. He was arrested, taken to London, tried, and, although a non-combatant, executed for the part he had taken on the fatal day of Drummossie. The work, which is quite worthy of the subject, was carved on Caen stone, and placed in the Savoy Chapel in 1847, but unfortunately fell amongst the ruins of the fire that destroyed the Chapel in 1864. Around the mansion and within it are many memorials of its history, and not far away is the circle of stones set up by Riddel, Burns’s patron, in imitation of a Druidical Temple. To mark the new departure in his life, the farmer of Hllisland began to go regularly to church. This exemplary conduct continued until differences of opinion with the Rev. Joseph Kirkpatrick led—first to hard words between them, both in speech and writing, and finally to their utter estrangement. Mr Kirkpatrick was minister of Dunscore from 1777 till 1806, when he was translated to Wamphray. From December 11th, 1780, down to 1806, there is a complete blank in the Session Records; which fact is apt to prejudice one against the minister and in favour of the poet. We regret that at such an interesting period in the history of the parish no account of it should have been kept by those whose duty it was to do so. One more memorial of Burns exists in the tombstone of James 38 Transactions. Whyte, set on its side close beside the church tower. This was the retired Jamaica planter, whose advice brought about a change in the poet’s plans regarding his passage to the West Indies, else he would have sailed before the success of his book decided him against seeking his fortune beyond the sea. Mr Whyte was residing at Glaisnock House, near Cumnock, when he met the prospective overseer of slaves. But not long after, he purchased the estate of Over Stroquhan, in Dunscore, where he died in 1822 at the age of 90. Twelve miles distant from Ellisland, but still within the parish of Dunscore, is Craigenputtock, the home of Carlyle from 1828 till 1833. Froude calls it “the dreariest spot in all the British dominions,” but his description is by no means accurate. Dreary enough it may be in winter, when the snow-drifts lie piled across the mountain roads, and communication with the outer world is barred. In these mild latitudes, however, that is at the worst only for a day or two, while in summer it is a delightful inland home, with wide billowy stretches of pasture all around, extending to the dark Rhinns of Kells and the Solway Hills, the “inestimable silence” broken only by the bleating of sheep. The house is much as the philosopher left it. There is the little room he used as a study, containing a book- case with many of his own writings, and many volumes that belonged to him. Very noticeable is a set of Shakespeare with the inscription—‘ To my kind nephew, James Carlyle, for the winter nights at Craigenputtock, with best wishes. T. C. Chelsea, 12th October, 1890,” and Carlyle’s “ Life of Schiller,” on the title-page of which the frail old man had inscribed his nephew’s name in pencil, and then attempted to trace it over in ink. The walls are rich in portraits of the Sage and his heroes, of Frederick, and Cromwell, and Knox; and far out on the hill a cairn marks the spot to which Carlyle led Emerson on the day of his memorable visit. 2. Colvend as it was fifty years ago and as tt is now. By the Rev. James Fraser, D.D. In Colvend I include Southwick, which is still an integral part of the parish civilly. Ecclesiastically it was disjoined from Colvend in the course of the present year (1894), and erected into a church and parish, guoad sacra. Transactions. 39 From Southwick, beginning at the estuary of Southwick Burn, and tracing the coast round by Douglas Hall, Port o’ Warren, Barcloy Head, and onward to the Scaur and estuary of the Urr, the parish for a third of its circumference is bounded by the sea. On this side of the parish, therefore, the sea-side, the people had no neighbours with whom they could associate with and form connections, and with England they had little or no communication. At a time indeed anterior to that to which my paper relates, they had very close communication with the Isle of Man, but it was of an illicit and contraband character. At that time there was a regular smuggling traffic carried on between the two places, and there were men living in the parish when I came to it fifty years ago who remembered it and possibly profited by it. Captain John Crosbie, Laird of Kipp, himself a seafaring man, had a cellar under the floor of his dining-room, approached by a secret trap-door, which the carpet covered, and which was doubt- less designed for the safe custody of such commodities. I myself have seen him go down through the trap-door in question, and bring up a bottle, whether of wine or spirits I cannot remember. There is a similar cellar under the dining-room floor of the manse, approached also by a trap-door, and concealed in the same manner. On the rocky coast leading from Port o’ Warren to Douglas-Hall there are several caves and deep fissures in the rocks, admirably fitted for the concealment of contraband goods, until such time as removal could be safely effected. And on the other side of Port o’ Warren, in the rocks leading to what is called the Cormorants’ Dookers’ Bing, there are other caves and fissures, larger and deeper, which can only be approached at low water, and then only by wading. One on the Torr or Douglas- Hall shore is known as the Srandy Cave, a name significant of the use to which it was put. On the Island of Heston, which lies at the mouth of the Urr, less than a mile from the Colvend shore, there are also caves and fissures, larger, I am told, than those on the Torr or Boreland Heughs. This is the island which the author of the spirit-stirring fiction of “The Raiders” calls “ Rathan.” Colvend, as everyone knows who has lived in the parish, and _ as the least observant sees at a glance, is intersected by rocky ridges and strewed with boulders, so much so that Mr M‘Diarmid of the Courier characterised the parish as the “ Riddlings of 40, Transactions. Creation.” The rocky ridges, with morasses intervening, ‘separate the different straths or valleys, of which the parish is made up, the one from the other, and render intercourse between them impracticable except for pedestrians. Anyone wishing to ride or drive from one strath to the next, must needs go down to the sea level and turn the flank of the intervening barrier. But as bearing upon the insulated or semi-insulated condition of © the parish as it existed fifty years ago, what I would especially draw attention to is that Colvend on its landward side is surrounded by hills, particularly the Criffel range, which for miles form a barrier separating the parish from other parishes adjacent, and rendering intercourse between them impracticable. This, concurring with the previous cause referred to—their sea surroundings—made the people live a sort of isolated life, having little communication with the outside world. At that time the saying was common—‘Out of the world and into Colvend.” The effect was to beget selfishness and exclusiveness—to make the native population intolerant and jealous of strangers. I heard a farmer, an incomer, whose descendants are now recognised as natives, say that when he came into the parish a stranger, some sixty years ago, he was the object of general suspicion and dislike, but that, when in the course of time another farmer, a stranger also, came to occupy a farm near him, “‘he was glad, for Mr So-and-So would take the people off his back.” . Another and a less objectionable peculiarity common to com- munities circumstanced like the peopleof Colvend, who live isolated and removed to a distance from the bustle and turmoil of the outside world, is that they retain long a simplicity of character and a naivety of expression, which others, mingling much in the civilised world, have lost, or do not care to retain. To be so regarded by outsiders is naturally resented as matter of offence. , An old lady whom I knew well, and who was very properly proud of her native parish of Colvend and its people, was in no little degree disp:eased with a neighbouring clergyman because, in speaking to her of the people of Colvend, he called them a primitive people. This, of course, he did to teaze her, for he knew her susceptibility. Colvend differs from the majority of parishes, which, as a rule, are divided, and belong to a few individuals. In many cases a single individual owns the whole. In Colvend it is different. At the beginning of the time with which my paper is Transactions. 4] concerned, the parish was divided into eighteen or nineteen properties, owned by as many proprietors or heritors. One of these properties, the Barony of Barcloy, was held in trust by the Kirk Session of Caerlaverock, for the poor of Caerlaverock, and for the higher education of the children of Caerlaverock. This gave rise to the witticism, “The poor of Caerlaverock are the lairds of Couen.” Of the eighteen or nineteen properties into which the parish is divided, two of the larger—Fairgirth and Auchenskeoch have changed hands, and to the former Meikle- cloak has been added, to the latter Glensone and Ryes. Glen- stocken, the property of Mr Carrick Moore, near relative of Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna, was purchased by the late Mark Sprot Stewart of Southwick, and is now owned by his son, Sir Mark J. Stewart, Bart. Kipp was acquired by purchase from the Crosbie family, by Mr Chalmers, the present ‘proprietor. Auchenhill and Orchardknowes are owned by Lord Young, and Clonyard by Mr M‘Call. In other respects properties in the parish, considered relatively to the number of owners, and to the size of the properties, continue unchanged. The number of landed proprietors is still nearly the same. The estates and properties vary much in size and value. In one or two instances the rental touches or did touch, a few years ago, £2000. In others it ranges between £200 and £800, and in some instances it comes down to £50, £30, and even less. To me this gradation in ownership has always seemed pleasing, and in many respects desirable, and in this respect I have often considered Colvend unique. I know no other parish similarly- circumstanced as to ownership. Inseparably, indeed, connected with the ownership of the land are the tenantry or tenant farmers of a parish The tenant farmers of Colvend, like the proprietors, rent and occupy farms of varying size, and of rents varying according to the size and value of their holdings. Some of the farms in the parish are wholly agricultural, but many have attached to them portions of moorland or hill pasture, and in one or two instances the hill and moorland pasture constitutes the more valuable portion of the farm. The rents vary from £100 to £200 and £300, and in one instance runs up to £600, but this includes two farms, one of which is known as what is called a led farm. The others graduate down to £50 or £40. These latter are tenanted in many cases by those who in their early life were farm servants, or day labourers, who have been 6 42 Transactions. industrious and saving, and were able to begin farming in a small way, and on their own account. From these latter not unfrequently spring the men who rent the largest and best cultivated farms in the district. This also is a feature character- istic of Colvend, and which I should gladly see extended to other parishes and districts. There is a marked difference between the gradation in farms which obtains in Colvend and other parts of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and that which exists in the Lothians, in the lowland parts of Perthshire and Forfarshire, where the pro- prietors are few in number and the farms large. Fifty years ago the farms were tenanted by men whose fathers, and whose fathers’ fathers had, with infinite labour and no little expense, reclaimed the land, stubbing out the briars and thorns with which the country was at that time covered, trenching the ground which had never known touch of either spade or plough, raising the stones and blasting the boulders with which the country was strewed, building the dykes or stone fences by which the fields were enclosed, by men who continued and improved upon the work which their fathers had begun. Fifty years ago, and for ten or twenty years later, the work of reclama- tion in the parish was still in progress, but with lessened and ever lesseniig enterprise. JI myself was one of the last, and, considering the size of my small holding, the Glebe and the Manse Farm, not one of the least improvers of the land. The Manse Farm I rented. I took out of the ground which I reclaimed I daresay 10,000 cart loads of stones, and of boulders I blasted several hundreds. There was a common saying in the parish at that time—‘ The land should build the dykes,” the meaning of which was that the improvements should repay the outlay; and, so long as they did so, reclamation of the land continued ; but when, by a rise in rents and the increased cost of labour, the conditions were reversed, the reclamation of land ceased. Such is the state of matters at the present time. If any further reclamation of land takes place it must be by the owners, or, if by tenants, it must be by tenants under exceptionally favourable conditions. Fifty years ago farms were tenanted by men whose fore- fathers had been tenants of the same farm for several generations. One family I knew who could trace back their connection with the farm on which they were born for 200 years. They are now Transactions. 43 all dead, but the descendants of one of the sons are farmers in Ireland. A farmer still living in the parish (1894), 85 years of age, but some eighteen years retired from farming, tells me that he, his father, and grandfather, and, he believes, his great- grandfather, were tenants of the same farm, the farm of Burnside, from time immemorial, or for a period of 300 years. The farm, if it can be so called, was doubtless at first but a bit of barren and unprofitable moorland; and my informant, who did more than all his forefathers put together to reclaim the land, and to bring it into its present well cultivated, well fenced, and well housed condition, tells me that about 100 years ago the rent was £20, but, to keep’ himself correct, he added that to the original little croft, for it was nothing better, there were added two small portions of swampy and but partially reclaimed land. Eighteen years ago, when he retired from the farm, he was offered a renewal of his lease by his landlord—a different landlord from that of his middle age, at a rise of £60, or £10 more than he was paying. Fifty years ago no landlord wished to remove from his estate a family that wished to remain, or, at the expiry of a lease, so raised the rent on an old tenant that he could not retake it. It was a thing unknown at that time to have a farm advertised to be let. Now it is a thing almost as unknown to find a farm let without being advertised. Between the years 1850 and 1860 the change began. A steady and ever increasing rise of rents set in. Then, whenever a lease was out, and the farm advertised to be let, if the outgoing tenant was not to be an offerer, applicants were numerous—more numerous of course where the farms were small; and rents were offered, rents were given, which to the older tenants seemed ruinous. For a time— for a period of fifteen or twenty years, rents at a high figure were maintained, and farmers seemed to thrive and prosper. At that time properties were sold and properties were bought at prices which cannot now be realised, and farms everywhere, in all parts of the country, changed hands. Colvend did not escape the revolution. Colvend, indeed, which seemed to lie outside the influence of change and civilization, felt it more. Of the old tenants, whose fathers made the farms, and whose forefathers for generations occupied the farms, hardly a descendant now remains in the parish, and only two occupy farms, but not the farms which their fathers tilled. 44 Transactions. Fifty vears ago dykes in Colvend (the fences are all dry-stone dykes)——could be built, the very best, 44 feet high for 1s 6d a rood. A rood is 18 feet. I have built some hundreds of them. Now the same height of dyke could not be built under 4s 6d. The dykes in Colvend are not built of such trifling stones as are to be seen in some neighbouring parishes, but of great granite stones or blasted boulders, some of them half a ton weight Such a dyke may be seen on the farm of Nether Clifton on the road up to the Southwick Churchyard. 1 remember passing the field which the dyke in question now encloses, but which was then but partially reclaimed, covered with great boulders everywhere sticking up their heads. An old farmer, Mr Gibson of Auchenlosh, himself a great improver in his day, directing my attention to the state of the field, said, with an expression of contempt either for the farmer or his landlord, or for both— “Did you ever see such a debauched field?” The boulders have long since been unearthed and blasted, and now form one of the strongest dykes in the parish. The next point which, in speaking of the changes which have taken place in Colvend, calls for special remark, is the number of cottages which, at the beginning of the period were in the parish standing occupied, compared with what there are now. At the time when I came to the parish, the parish was dotted over with cottages. Every little oasis among the hills, every sheltered neuk by rock, or stream, or shore, had its cottage, with garden adjoining. Many of the cottages were solitary, removed to a distance from any neighbour. Some were pitched around or near the dwelling-house of the farm on which they were built, and some few were grouped together in twos and threes. Many of the occupants held their cottages from the farmer on whose land they stood, and to him they paid rent or rendered service. A few cottages were of the nature of crofters’ dwellings, and had attached to them an acre or two of arable or pasture land. These they held direct from the landlord. But the cottages, whether of the nature of crofts or simple dwellings with gardens attached, and in some cases a cow’s grass added, have all, with scarce an exception, disappeared. I can myself recall fifty at least which have so disappeared, in most of which I have baptized, married, and conducted such religious services as the occasion required, and of these hardly a vestige remains to mark the spot where they stood. In some few places where the Transactions. 45 stones of the building have not been cleared away, or the enclosures of the garden have been left standing, the sites may be recognised ; otherwise the place is a blank. The most remarkable of these dilapidated enclosures still left standing, though greatly broken down and all but levelled with the ground, is a group of broken-down dykes or garden enclosures seen not far from Southwick old church. It is easily noticeable from the parish road which passes the churchyard on the opposite side of the valley, and anyone noticing it at once says, there doubtless at one time stood a village under the protecting shadow of the church. The village existed at a period anterior to the time at which my paper begins, but not so long anterior as a person looking at the relics may think. Mr Craik, tenant of Nether Clifton, and whose father tenanted it before him—Mr Craik who lived to 90 years of age, and died only a few years ago—told me that he remembered one of the houses still standing and occupied. The cottages of that period were of a rude and simple con- struction—built of drystone wall, without lime; they were thatched with turf and straw if it could be got; if not, with brackens, heather, or reeds from the numerous lochs. The turf consisted of thin flakes, or scraws as they were called, cut or flayed from the moorland surface by a flauchter spade, the spade used in stripping off the top of the moss in peat casting. Sir Walter Scott, who has rescued from oblivion so many of our Scotch words, mentions the flauchter spade in “The Antiquary.” Many of the cottages were of a peculiar and highly primitive construction. st posi aya Be roN e-£ By iii. Hy PPO METTLE ify AEST TTT TTT z TT TT Ci ea iy E willl Te ot SE tit i ‘ i i 8 H MATTEO OTT HN MMMM & 1) Hien FAA UN TA \ NA \ Wil IMIS SS! TT TTT ET TTT NSS Scate of Feet A tapes Hitch 19 iD} 70} v © 0 v & Q ? port® cpencd.. removed... 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