2 6o The Scottish Naturalist. 



and other mines of " Crawford moor and Glengonar." Foulis 

 became permanently connected with the district, in which he 

 purchased property ; for his granddaughter Annie, heiress to his 

 territorial possessions here, marrying into the Hope family, her 

 grandson was, in course of time, the first Earl of Hopetoun, 

 while the present Earls of Hopetoun are proprietors of the Lan- 

 arkshire portion of what in the sixteenth century acquired the 

 name of the " golden area " of Crawford. 



Then we come in 1594-97 to the originator and Grand-master 

 of the order of the " Golden Knights," or " Knights of the Golden 

 Mines" — Sir Bevis Bulmer, an Englishman, one of the most 

 famous of the mining engineers, or mineral surveyors, whose 

 duties or whose interests called them to the Crawford district 

 in olden times. In various forms he has made and left his mark 

 permanently on the district, like Foulis, whom he joined in part- 

 nership. He built a fine mansion-house in Glengonar ; and one 

 of the heights above its former site "still bears the name of 

 Bulmer's Hill;" while there is also in the district a " Bulmer 

 moss" (Porteous). The vestiges of old gold - workings in the 

 Longcleuch, at the locality still called the "Gold Scours,"^ are also 

 said to have been those of Sir Bevis (Calvert) ; while " a row of 

 houses in Wanlockhead, termed the ' Gowd Scar Row,' are monu- 

 ments of these enterprising works of the sixteenth century " (Port- 

 eous). Buhner was so high in favour with Queen Elizabeth that 

 he was appointed by her Master of the Mint, presumably of Eng- 

 land. Whether in gratitude, or to gain her favour, he presented 

 to her a gold porri?iger made of the produce of his Crawford work- 

 ings (Calvert).^ Bulmer had a Stamping-mill erected at the head 

 of the Longcleuch Burn — a tributary of the Shortcleuch — for he 

 had found there " the little string or vein powdered with small 

 gold" (Porteous) — that vein apparently which had been first dis- 

 covered by Bowes. What Atkinson tells us, however, is this : 

 " Some say that he also found out the Suspected Vaine of gold 

 which Mr Bowes had discovered." Bulmer wrote an unpub- 

 lished — that is, a MS. — book on his mining experiences, entitled 

 * Bulmer's Skill ; ' and it was it that led the king to propose 

 the creation of a Speculative Company of Golden Knights (Cal- 



^ This designation, however, would appear to be borne by more tlian one 

 locality in the district; for Dr Porteous tells us that "mounds of rubbish on 

 the Elvan or Shortcleuch are still called the Gowd Scars." 



'^ Another version of the story being that he "presented as much gold as 

 made a porringer" (Fittis). 



