Address of the Vice-President. 23. 



rounded by walls or ramparts of earth and stone, and by -a 

 double fosse. The hill on which the fort stood commands an 

 extensive prospect. 



The banks of the Dee, which formed the boundary be- 

 tween the two British tribes of the Selgovce and Novantes^ 

 afford numerous marks of the ancient British Forts. 



The Castles in the district were numerous, various, and 

 many of them important. But if we except the castle of 

 Dumfries, all of them seem to have been private property, 

 the strongholds of particular families, and not public or 

 national property. 



Dumfries itself may not form an exception. But we read 

 that on the memorable day of Comyn's death it was occupied 

 by the Justiciars of Galloway holding their circuit court there. 

 Yet in its origin the castle of Dumfries appears to have been 

 a stronghold of the Lords of Galloway, like the castle of 

 Loch Fergus and the castle of Buitle ; and the site on 

 Avhich the black Douglas erected his castle of Thrieve on the 

 Dee, was another of their strongholds. 



The Society had an opportunity of visiting in one of its 

 late excursions, the site of the castle of Loch Fergus. There 

 is the Palace and the Stable isle, — both of which were form- 

 erly surrounded with water. But the loch is now no longer 

 in existence, and we approach the islands through cultivated 

 fields. 



The statutes of Lady Dervorgille for the regulation of 

 Baliol College, are dated from Botel or Buitle, and are dated 

 the octave of the Assumption, 1282. 



An interesting account of the castle of Thrieve is to be 

 found in Nicolson's Gallowaj', Appendix, Note M, prepared 

 for the work by Mr Train, — who may also have furnished to 

 Sir Walter Scott the jougs which hang at Abbotsford, and 

 were formerly at Thrieve. Eight stone balls,4 of them 3f lbs. 

 each, found in the castle of Thrieve in the summer of 1843, 

 were in Mr Train's possession ; and a stone ball about 19 

 inches in diameter found there the previous summer was 

 presented to the Maxwelltown Observatory, 



