Agnews of Lochnaw

PREFACE. IX
search ; but Mr. Train, again, resided principally at
Newton-Stewart, and never acquired a personal know-
ledge of the Ehinns, and he in his turn applied for infor-
mation from that quarter to Mr. Todd, parish-school-
master at Drumore. Both of these persons were tho-
roughly trustworthy, and had a decided turn for such
inquiries ; but they had no access to the family papers
of the representatives of the old baronage of the province.
The same remark holds true of the learned professional
genealogists before mentioned. Two generations back,
locomotion and correspondence were tedious matters,
and moreover, country gentlemen were seldom disposed
to allow literary men to handle their old writs, which
they jealously guarded in strong boxes, rarely as they
themselves had any accurate knowledge of their contents.
It is told of my respected great grandfather, Sir Stair
Agnew, that about the beginning of the century, Chalmers
or Playfair applied to him for permission to look into his
charter-chest, to which he replied by a peremptory refusal.
A neighbour and distant relative pleaded hard for the
antiquary, offering to assist at the examination, adding
that he should like to see the history of his friend's
family and of his own appear together, owing to their
intimate connection. " Sir," sternly replied the testy old
knight, " take what liberties you please with your own
family, but take none with mine ! " This little story may
help to explain the reason of the unusual incorrectness
of our old genealogists in all that concerns Wigtownshire
pedigrees.
For myself, on the contrary, whilst the area of my