Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

210
DUMFRIES-SHIRE.
that a female domestic left in charge of the
house, took a strange method of exhibiting her
ill will to the royal army, which Boon after
passed through the town. Just as a party were
marching along the street, under the walls of
the viscount's house, the woman took a quan-
tity of boiling dish-water, and flung it out of a
window in the first storey upon their devoted
heads. Little real injury was sustained ; but
the men were so incensed at the diabolical at-
tempt, as they called it, that it required some
powers of persuasion on the part of the chief
men of the town, to prevent them from setting
it on fire. Prince Charles arrived at Dum-
blane on the 11th of September 1745, on his
way into the low country, and after staying a
night, went with his army to Doune on the
12th. The house in which he lodged was that
of Alexander MacGregor, Esq. of Balhadies.
The bed in which he slept is still preserved,
and the room in which he held his leve'e on the
morning of his departure, is still shown to the
inquiring visitant. Dumblane had likewise
been distinguished in the civil war of 1715,
from the battle of Sheriffmuir having been
fought in its vicinity ; and, indeed, that con-
flict was at first termed the battle of Dum-
blane, at least by the king's party. The en-
virons of Dumblane present several objects
that merit the attention of the tourist. From
the western window of the principal room of
the inn, near the bridge across the Allan, a
view may be had which is admired by draughts-
men. At the lower end of the town begins
the romantic, though artificial, walk of Kippen-
ross, near the further extremity of which there
is a sycamore, or plane-tree, supposed to be the
largest in the kingdom. This splendid piece
of timber measures twenty-eight feet round the
stem, and covers nearly half an acre with its
wilderness of branches. From Dumblane there
is a road leading northwards by Ardoch and
Muthill, to Crieff, in Strathearn, where it
enters the Highlands, and which was formed by
General Wade, at the beginning of the last cen-
tury. Dumblane is the seat of the sherifF-sub-
Btitute of the western division of Perthshire,
and here a court of that functionary is held
every "Wednesday during sessions. It was like-
wise the head town of the commissariot ; but
the commissary courts were merged lately in
the sheriff courts. There is an association con-
nected with the place called the Dumblane
Farming Society, which meets in July to ro-
9.
ceive a report of the state of the farms and
crops, and in November to receive a report of
stack-yards, turnips, &c. The members hold
a ploughing match in the spring, and give pre-
miums to the six best ploughmen. There is
a Saving's Bank in the town. A weekly mar-
ket is held on Thursdays, and there are four
annual fairs, which are chiefly cattle markets.
Besides the parish church, there is a dissenting
meeting-house in the place. In the course of
the summer of 1 830, the inhabitants of Dum-
blane erected a neat cottage on a most delight-
fid spot on the banks of the Allan, and within
ten minutes walk of the town. It is to this
place that the mineral water, which attracts so
many visitors, is brought, and where the drink-
ers resort. This little building has been raised
by subscription, and will prove of very great ad-
vantage to the town, for the spring of water is
at a place called Cromlix, two miles from Dum-
blane, which distance formed a serious impedi-
ment in unfavourable weather. There are re-
gular conveyances to and from Glasgow and
Perth, and persons going to or returning from
Edinburgh pass through Stirling, with which
there is a communication, in the summer, at
least, by means of vehicles called noddies
Population of the town and parish in 1821,
3135.
DUMFRIES-SHIRE, a large county in
the south of Scotland, presenting its south-
eastern base to Cumberland and the Solway
Firth, bounded on the south-west by the Stew-
artry of Kirkcudbright, from which it is sepa-
rated by the Cairn Water for several miles, on
the north-west by Ayrshire, on the north by
Lanark, Peebles, and part of Selkirkshire,
and on the east by Selkirk, Roxburgh, and part
of Cumberland. From the place where the
Cairn Water ceases to be its distinct boundary,
with scarcely an exception, it is closed in by a
range of conspicuous mountains, whose sinu-
ous course it constantly follows till the line is
taken up by the small river Liddle, a tributary
of the Esk. After this, a portion of Cum-
berland crosses the Esk, and the small river
Sark then becomes the dividing boundary.
The county extends fifty-two miles in length
from east to west, but its greatest length is
from east-north-east to west-north-west, fifty-
five miles, and the broadest part is thirty-six
miles, though, in other positions, the breadth
is only seventeen miles. According to the best
surveys, it contains a superficies of 1228 square