90 Notes on Cummertkees. 



having- trausported theuLsel ves from Maiuhill to manage the farm- 

 ing- operations, while he devoted himself to literary work. He 

 did a good deal at German Romance, and meditated on other things 

 that took outward sliape afterwards. In his IJeminiscences he 

 says : — " My translation (German Romance) went steadily on, the 

 pleasantest labour I ever had ; and could be done by task in what- 

 ever humour or condition I was in, and was d y by day (ten pages 

 a day, I think) punctually and comfortably so performed. Inter- 

 nally, too, there were far higher things going on; a grand and 

 ever joyful victoiy getting itself achieved at last. The final 

 chaining- down, trampling home ' for good,' home into their caves 

 for ever, of all my spiritual dragons, which had wrought me sad 

 woe, and for a decade past had made my life black and bitter." 

 And so it was at Repentance Hill that his spiritual campaign, the 

 first battle of which was won in Leith Walk four years before, 

 came to a close. 



Some have been inclined to think that besides the Ohapel of 

 Trailtrow there A\as another old chapel, nearer the centre of the 

 parish, and there are one or two things which seem to lend some 

 countenance to the supposition. On the farm of Wintersheugh 

 there is (or was) a well called Chapel well, and near by pieces of 

 finely wroug-ht stone have been dug up from the ground. More- 

 over, in a field on the adjoining- farm of Ciiarlesfield portions of 

 what looked to have been tombstones liave been found. AVhile 

 these things may appear to indicate the existence of a chapel in 

 that locality, there is no tradition of it, and no mention is made of 

 it in any document that has come under my notice. 



Up till 1 743 the united parish of Cummertrees and Trailtrow 

 was, along with the parish of Ruth well, in the Presbytery of Loch- 

 maben. In that year the Presbytery of Middlebie, which con- 

 sisted of the parishes of Annan, Dornock, Hoddom, Middlebie, 

 Kirkpatrick-Fleming, Graitney, Langholm, Ewes, Westerkirk, 

 Eskdalemuir, and Canobie, petitioned the (general Assembly to erect 

 the first six of these, with Cummertrees and Ruthwell, into a new 

 Presbytery, to be called the Presbytery of Annan, setting forth as 

 their reasons foi- asking the change the distance of many of the 

 parishes from the Presbytery seat and the badness of the roads. 

 The petition was granted, and the Presbytery of Annan met for 

 the first time on the first Tuesday of November, 1 743. 



