139 



FIELD MEETINGS 



5th June — Kirkcudbright. 



On Satui'day about a dozen members visited Kirkcudbright. 

 Tliere they were joined by a few kindred spirits, and drove in a 

 Highland brake from the Commercial Hotel in the direction of the 

 Lake and Torrs heughs. The drive led by St. Mary's Isle gate 

 and Park House, the old road to Kirkcudbright, abrogated by 

 Lord Daer, being passed on the left. At the Look-out a fine view 

 was got of the lighthouse on Little Ross Island, and of the spur 

 of St. Mary's Isle, where Paul Jones landed in the course of his 

 famous escapade. The Black-Murray Well, connected with a 

 well-known legend involving more or less mythical incidents, only 

 received a hurried passing glance. It is said that at this spot 

 not only was a noted robber drowned with brandy where he 

 expected water, but ghosts have been seen by respectable persons. 

 The drive ended at the warning post at the commencement of the 

 Lake Wood, from which a six or seven mile walk was undertaken. 

 The pace had thus to be rather hurried. Shortly after enteriug 

 the Lake Wood the remains of a faintly-outlined Druidical circle 

 were noted just opposite the handsome new lifeboat house. 

 Further on, on the left, a hill was shewn which is marked on the 

 Ordnance Map as King William's Battery, a description, it should 

 be said, which is received with pronounced scepticism by many 

 inquirers. It has to be said, however, that Dr Muter, in his 

 Satistical Account of Kirkcudbright (1794), states that King 

 William erected a battery on Torrs to protect his fleet while it 

 was weather-bound in the Lake. It was incidentally mentioned 

 that the famous Willie Marshall, the centenarian Galloway gipsy, 

 served in King William's army. The famous oyster rock, or 

 " Long Robin," was next passed, just opposite a grove of trees 

 planted at the instance of Lord Daer, than whom no one has left 

 on the landscape of that side of the Stewartry more indelible traces 



