Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

214
D UMFRIE S- SHIRE.
settled by Anglo-Norman barons, such as the
Avenals, the Soulises, and the Rossedalls,
whose names have since sunk by marriage, or
extinction. Dumfries-shire was often seriously
troubled during the wars of Bruce and Baliol,
and the miseries it then suffered were only ex-
changed for similar vexations under the re-
bellious Douglasses who had gained an extensive
settlement in the district. On the attainder of
this family, 1455, their lordships reverted to
the crown, and were partly given to the Earl
of March. In 1484, the expatriated Earl of
Douglas and the Duke of Albany invaded Dum-
fries-shire, and from this period the county does
not seem to have had many years' rest at a time
for several centuries. It appears to have been
the ready theatre for carrying on the warfare of
the two rival countries. So late as 1607, it
was the scene of a meeting betwixt the private
forces of Lord Maxwell and the Earl of Mor-
ton, and it was with difficulty that the privy
council could arrest the evident mischief
of a battle. Under James VI. the country
subsided into peaceful occupations, but when
the civil war broke out under Charles I.
the common people entered heartily into the
covenant, and the shire was disturbed by
the exertions made by the loyal noblemen and
gentlemen in quelling the insurrections. In
Montrose's wars, the gentlemen of this county
were distinguished for their good will to the
cause of royalty, and suffered accordingly.
Attachment to the house of Stuart ruined
several of the great families. The Maxwells
were completely ruined by the attainder of the
Earl of Nithsdale in 1715. Humbler causes
have conspired to extinguish other great names
in more recent times. The Douglasses of
Queensberry and the Johnstones of Annan-
dale have merged in other families, and out of
the general wreck the noble house of Buc-
cleugh has risen to the greatest property and
sway of any family in the south of Scotland.
From being thus so frequently subjected to
the horrors of invasion and feudatory warfare,
and being so partitioned into baronies, the
shire till this day exhibits the remains of some
very important castles and places of security,
most of which are noticed in this work under
the appropriate head of the parishes and towns
to which they belong. It is ascertained that
Dumfries-shire was placed under the govern-
ment of a sheriff in the thirteenth century, at
which period it included the Stewartry of
Kirkcudbright. The district of Annandale,
however, continued to be a Stewartry under the
jurisdiction of a royal steward, from the period
when it merged in the crown, by the accession
of Bruce, till the abolition of the heritable juris-
dictions. Up to the epoch of the Reformation,
Dumfries-shire formed part of the extensive
diocese of Glasgow, and was divided into the
two deaneries of Nithsdale and Annandale.
It now possesses forty-two parishes, which are
divided into five presbyteries and one synod.
The only towns in the shire are Dumfries, the
capital, and a royal burgh ; and Annan, Loch-
maben, and Sanquhar, which are also royal
burghs. It has six burghs of barony, Moffat,
Lockerby, and Langholm, Ecclefechan, Thorn-
hill and Minniehive. By the latest county roll
Dumfries-shire has eighty-six freeholders, who
elect a member of parliament.
The chief seats in the County are, Drum-
lanrig Castle, Duke of Buccleugh and Queens-
berry ; Kenmount, Marquis of Queensberry ;
Comlongan Castle, (an old keep rarely inha-
bited, though a Scottish king lodged in it of
yore) Earl of Mansfield,- RaehiVs, Hope John-
stone of Annandale ; Springkcll, Sir Patrick
Maxwell ; JardinehaU, Sir William Jardine (a
distinguished naturalist) ; Maxicelltown, Admi-
ral Sir Robert Lawrie, Bart.; Amisfield, the seat
of the ancient and respectable family of Char-
teris, Esq. ; Closeburn Hall, C. G. S. Men-
teath, Esq. ; Craigdarrock, (where the whistle,
the subject of theBacchanalian contest celebrat-
ed by Burns, is still kept), R. Cutlar Fergus-
son, Esq., M.P. ; WesterhaU, Johnston, Bart. ;
Drumcrieff, Rogerson, Esq.; Hoddam Castle,
General Sharpe ; Dalswinton, MAlpine Leny,
Esq., (formerly the seat of the celebrated Mr.
Miller, who made the first experiments in steam
navigation on a lake near the mansion-house,
where the hull of the original boat still lies) ;
Murraythwaite, Murray; Barjarg Tower, Hun-
ter (a minor) ; Blackwood-house, Copland of
Collieston ; Langholm Lodge, (a hunting seat
of the Duke of Buccleugh) ; Broomholm, Max-
well ; Tcrregles-House, Maxwell of Nithsdale ;
Mosshnow, Graham, &c.
Table of heights in Dumfries-shire.
IN NITHSDALE.
Wardlaw, in Caerlaverock
Wanlockhead, village of, '.
Cairn- Kinnow, near Drumlanrig
Feet above
the sea.
826
1564
2080