Biggar and the House of Fleming

THE TOWN OF BIGGAR. 39
scudding on their hunkers ; then their elders on their cvecpies,
turned upside down ; and then the ruck. Away it swept,
yelling and swaying to-and-fro, like a huge dragon, lithe and
supple — 'swingeing the horror' of its multitudinous tail —
down across the street, heedless of everything ; running, it may
be, right into Mr Pairman's shop, or down on the other side
into William Johnstone's byre, and past the tail of his utmost
coo. Then the confusion and scrimmage, and doubling of
everybody up at the ending ! — that was the glory, like empty-
ing an express train into a 'free toom.' All this is gone,
the Cross-knowc is levelled, the Hurlcy-hackct is unknown —
no longer [lames down the steep with half the town, and, it
may be, the minister and the dominie secretly at its tail, with
a fragment of a tar barrel flourishing and blazing at its head.
It was worthy of the pen of him who sang of Anster Fair."
One of the most interesting events in the history of Biggar
is the visit of Captain Grose in 1789. On that occasion the
"fine, fat, fodgel wight" was accompanied by Captain Robert
Riddel of Glemiddel, one of the heroes who flourish in
Burns' famous ballad of the " Whistle," and by Grose's servant,
Mr Thomas (locking, who was familiarly known by the name
of " Tom," and who, like his master, had "an unco slight o' cauk
and keel." It is fortunate that an account of the visit,
written by Capt. Riddel, is still extant, and is carefully pre-
served in one of the live volumes of the Captain's manuscripts
now in possession of that prince of antiquaries, Mr Sim. They
set out in a chaise from Friars Carse on Friday the 15th of
May 1789, and travelling by Drumlanrig, Sanquhar, Wanloch-
head, Leadhills, Lamiii"'ton, and Coulter, arrived at Biggar
on the afternoon of Sabbath the 17th, and took up their
abode at the Wigton Arms, then kept by Mr. Wilson. They
had made sketches of various landscapes, gentlemen's seats,
old castles, &c, by the way ; and Capt. Riddel being much
pleased with the. prospect IVmn one of the windows of the Inn,
induced "Tom " to make a drawing of it, which is preserved
in the volumes referred to, and embraces the Cross, the Cross-
knowe; the ruins of the Old Tolhooth, the row of thatched
houses that ran downwards from the west side of the Knowe,
and the distant landscape, including Hartree House and
Hartree hills. On Monday morning the chaise was yoked, and