22 Address of the Vice-President. 



Friars. And a portion of this, which is called the old aisle, 

 still remains. 



And the walls of the old church at Buitle still remain, 

 covered with ivy, and forming, in its ruin, an object of pic- 

 turesque beauty. 



In the ancient churchyard of Dunrod, near Kirkcud- 

 bright, are portions of a large stone Cross and a stone Font, 

 conjectured to have been used in pre-Reformation times. 

 One of the arms of the Cross is set up as the head stone of a 

 grave. We shall afterwards notice some other crosses found 

 in the ruins of old churches. 



The structures to which we have been adverting — name- 

 ly, the ancient stone circles, the Abbeys, and the pre-Refor- 

 mation Churches — we class together as of an ecclesiastical 

 character. 



We come now to those of a civil or lay origin — the an- 

 cient Forts and Castles. 



In one of our late exclusions we visited the site and re- 

 mains of the old British Fort, Gaerhantorigum, on the farm 

 of Drumraore, near Kirkcudbright. This fort is the most 

 important, for size and strength, of the numerous British 

 strongholds with which this part of Galloway is studded. It 

 is supposed to have formed the last refuge of the Selgovoe, 

 and there are not wanting traces that it was subsequently 

 occupied by the Romans, who would appear to have altered 

 the shape of its defences, from the round to the square. 



The Rev. Mr Fosbroke, in treating of the forms of Camps, 

 says, " I venture to conclude that camps of three or more 

 valla, or of capricious form, and only one or more oblique 

 entrances, are, or originally were, of Celto British construc- 

 tion. If four or two entrances are made straight through 

 the vallum either lengthways or across, and opposite to each 

 other, and alterations and attempts have been made to 

 square the outline, such camps may be presumed to have 

 been of subsequent Roman occupation." 



The site of the fort of Caerbantorigum is in extent about 

 60 paces E. and W., and 37 N. and S. The fort was sur- 



