192 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



of the provost's house, are all that remain ; but these convey a clear idea of what 

 Lincluden must have been in its best day. Subterraneous passages are said to 

 have enabled the inmates to keep up an intercourse with the neighbouring 

 monasteries of Dumfries and Holywood ; in which case they must have been 

 carried, like tunnels, under the bed of the river. Burns alludes to this " roofless 

 tower," in his well-known lyric, the " Vision." 



Dumfries is the handsomest town in the south of Scotland, and the favourite 

 residence of families and individuals to whom a healthy climate, great facilities of 

 education, and the enjoyment of cultivated society, are objects of consideration. 

 It combines most of the advantages of a large capital ; and, by its daily inter- 

 course with Edinburgh, and its position on the great road to the south and west, 

 possesses many recommendations as a residence.* The streets are clean and airy, 

 well paved, flanked with cheerful, and, in many instances, handsome edifices, 

 and lighted with gas. Dumfries, like Ayr, has its " twa brigs," — the old and 

 the new. The Nith is here a magnificent river, and having had its channel 

 deepened, vessels of considerable tonnage are now brought up to t-he very doors, 

 to receive and discharge their cargoes, which gives the town the advantages of 

 a sea-port.+ The environs abound in picturesque scenery, and command exten- 

 sive prospects in every direction. On the south, flanked by Crifiell on the right, 

 shut in by Skiddaw in front, and the Solway Frith flowing between, the 

 Cumberland coast and mountains are beautifully defined. On the west and 

 north, and partly on the east, the prospect is bounded by an undulating chain 

 of hills, which form part of the " Scottish Arcadia." The intervening space 

 is one of the richest and most variegated dales in Scotland. 



The earhest historical fact on record regarding Dumfries, is the erection of a 

 Franciscan monastery, by Devorgilla, mother of Baliol, in the cloisters of which 

 the Red Comyn, lord of Badenoch, was slain by Robert Bruce, as already noticed in 

 this work. Here Edward II. received the homage of the Scottish nobihty. The 

 town was several times burnt by the English, but signally avenged in the last 

 instance by Lord Maxwell, who crossed the Frith with a small body of resolute 

 followers, entered the town of Penrith, and reduced it to ashes. Dumfries was 



* Among the public buildings are the two parish churches, the Academy, several Dissenting meeting- 

 houses — two of wliicli are new and handsome ; an Episcopalian and a Roman Catholic chapel; a poor-house, 

 an infirmary, a town-hall, the work of Inigo Jones; the trades' hall, the court-house, the bridewell and 

 county prisons; a handsome suite of assembly-rooms, and a theatre. The population (about twelve thou- 

 sand) suffered greatly during the cholera, to which upwards of four hundred fell victims witliin a very short 

 period. 



f The only foreign trade is with America for timber; the other vessels are coasters. A steamer sails 

 regularly from this port to Whitehaven and Liverjiool. 



