86 Notes on Cummeetrees. 



Bruce. " It is said," to (]uote from tlie New Statistical Account of 

 the parish, "that when Bruce was on the shore at a place called 

 Priestside, being- weary and exhausted by hung-er and fatig-ue, a 

 farmer's wife fed him with bread and eg-gs, but without salt. On 

 hearing that the people along the Priestside were not allowed to 

 make salt, Bruce, with his usual generosity, immediately granted 

 to the people in that quarter a charter to make salt duty free. 

 Several years before the salt duty was removed the excise tried 

 the validity of the Priestside, or rather Annandale, salt charter at 

 Edinburgh, when, after much litigation, it was found to be good 

 and sufficient ; but that it was granted according to the circum- 

 stances handed down by tradition cannot be clearly proved. The 

 exemption from salt-duty along the coast of the Solway in Annan- 

 dale depends at present on an Act of the Scottish Parliament 

 passed in the time of Charles II., but that Act records that it was 

 a privilege enjoyed from time immemorial till invaded by the 

 usurper, Oliver Cromwell." (Appendix B.) 



To pass from salt-making, there was another occupation 

 carried on in that locality which, if less legitimate, was more 

 lucrative. If the parish is bare and monotonous along its Solway 

 side, it yet derives some interest from the circumstance that it 

 forms one of the scenes in Sir Walter's " Redgauntlet " and sup- 

 plied him with the name at least of the Laird of Summertrees. 

 There, as at other places on the Solway, smuggling was wont to 

 go briskly on. A house at Powfoot called Hillhouse was specially 

 built with a view to the trade, and provided with cellars for con- 

 cealing the contraband goods. In a row of houses now away, but 

 situated near Hillhouse, there was another house which did duty 

 as a similar receptacle. The fields round about were thickly 

 covered with whins, among which casks of brandy were deposited 

 for the time being, and removed when favourable opportunities 

 presented themselves. So plentiful was brandy in that quarter 

 that the road leading from the high road to Powfoot got the name 

 of the Brandy Loaning, and such a dish as " brandy porridge " 

 was then not unknown. The farmhouse of vStonebriggs, about a 

 quarter of a mile to the west of Cummertrees Village, was also a 

 place noted for receiving smuggled articles. There was a cellar 

 in the house, and at some distance from the house there constantly 

 stood a peat stack, under which was another cellar, the two being 

 connected by a curious subterranean passage. On one occasion 



