Drumlanrig Castle and the Douglases

360 EARLY HISTORY OF MORTON.
eccentric character, would have made some impression on
the sands of time if she had received a proper education
and been regularly trained. Even in her uncultivated state
there were gleams of cleverness in her sayings and doings
which attracted the attention of her neighbours. She was a
native of Closeburn, one of that family of which it was
said, " that so long as the Kirkpatricks were proprietors
of Closeburn, so long should Frizzels (Frasers) be tenants
there." When the adherents of the Free Church had
some difficulty in procuring a central site for their
church, she presented them with a piece of ground on
which Virgin Hall is now built, and the deed of gift was
expressed in these quaint words, in her own handvvritting :
"The deed of gift is to be as free from henceforth to the
Free Church as I wish the heavenly mansion to be made
to me, and to last the property of the Free Church
while Sun, Moon, and Stars endure. — Signed by my
hand this 18th of August, 1845." Janet was an authoress,
having written "Poems on Religious Subjects," two
small volumes, 1S53; "Predestination, Election, on God's
decrees, and the Restoration of the Creature," two poems;
" The Proverbs of Solomon in Metre." She died in Thorn-
hill, 30th July, 1855, aged seventy-six years.
BURNS IN MORTON.
William Stewart, as we have already stated, removed
in 1793 from Closeburn Castle to the farm of Laught, in
the parish of Morton, and there Burns continued to
cultivate his society. Once while he was there, " Sandie
Spence," as he was called, the ploughman of Mr. Stewart,
one of whose children had become seriously ill, was sent