Field Meetings. 79 



Dr Bamage is disposed to accept as well-gi ouuded a belief that 

 the figures are the work of Roubilliac, who was the most dis- 

 tinguished sculptor of that time. There is no conclusive evidence 

 on the point, however. The contents of the vault, we are informed 

 in a note in M'Dowall's "History of Dumfries," were examined in 

 1836, and were, " in addition to the dust of the Duke and Duchess, 

 that of Isabella Douglas, wife of William, the first Duke ; that of 

 Lord George Douglas, son of the latter nobleman ; of Charles, the 

 third Duke ; of his wife Catherine Hyde, daughter of Henry, Earl 

 of Clarendon, celebrated for her beauty and wit by Pope and 

 Swift, and who was the beautiful patroness of Gay, who said 

 of her — 



' Yonder I see the cheerful Duchess stand, 

 For friendship, zeal, and blithesome humour known ; " 



of Charles, Earl of Drumlanrig, younger son of the third Duke ; 

 of Elizabeth Hope, Dowager Countess" of Drumlanrig ; of Henry, 

 Lord Drumlanrig ; and of Elizabeth, daughter of the Union 

 Duke." In the architrave of the mausoleum there are several 

 antique sculptured stones relating, it is believed, to various 

 branches of the Douglas family ; and there are a few articles 

 which were employed in the older sanctuary preserved here. The 

 churchyard contains many curiously figured stones ; and there is 

 one to the memory of Daniel M'Michael the Covenanter, who was 

 shot in Dalveen Pass by Sir John Dalziel, and whose remains 

 were Jiere interred. 



The name "Durisdeer" is supposed to be derived from two 

 Celtic words indicating the opening of the forest ; and Dalveen 

 — the " lang glen " of Burns' song, " Last May a braw wooer " — 

 is also derived from two roots signifying the smooth field. It is 

 evident that there must in early times have been large stretches 

 of forest in and beyond the parish ; and the beautifully formed 

 mountain eminences through which the Dalveen pass conducts, 

 and whose steep sides are clothed with a verdure soft, smooth, and 

 velvety as that of a well-kept lawn, render the name singularly 

 appropriate. Durisdeer was the scene of that last fatal expedi- 

 tion of Johnie of Braidislee which the old ballad so pathetically 

 relates — 



Johnie has buskit up his good bend-bow, 



His arrows ane by ane ; 

 And he has gane to Durisdeer 



To hunt the dun deer down. 



