48 A Century's Changes. 



nth February, 1898. 



Mr R. Murray, V.P., in the Chair. 



New Members. — Mrs Brown, Barnkin of Craigs ; Mr John 

 Bryce Duncan of Newlands ; Mr Walter Johnstone, Merchant 3 

 Rev. George Ure ; Mr Alexander Taylor, Dumfries Academy. 



Donations. — Nithsdale Illustrated, by Mr Peter Gray ; On 

 Primary Conditions of Tropical Production, by Mr Scott-Elliot. 



Exclumge. — Proceedings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, 

 vol. XV., 1894-5. 



Communications. 



1. A Century's Changes in a Pastoral Parish. 



By Rev. Thomas Rain, Hutton. 



So far as known to me the parish of Hutton and Corrie does 

 not present a promising Held to tlie researches of the antiquary. 

 Few remains of tlie past such as he is interested in — old earth * 

 and stone works, old battlefields, old traditions and customs — are 

 to be traced within it. Wliatever the legends and folklore were 

 ill bygone days, they liave come to be of the scantiest and most 

 commonplace kind now. There are the remains of a small 

 Roman encampment at Carterton ; whicli, according to the map, ; 

 would be almost bisected by a bee-line running from Birrenswark 

 to the encampment at Raeburnfoot, Eskdalemuir, lately explored 

 by the members of this Society. It is situated at the southern 

 extremity of a tongue-shaped bluff of land lying between two 

 deep burns, or cleuchs, wliich would form a natural protection 

 to the east and west. The ramparts are still quite traceable, 

 though they have been defaced in some places by the plough, 

 which was lirst driven over this camp about forty years ago, 

 when many cartloads of stones, forming no doubt the roadways, 

 were taken out of it. A son of the tenant of Carterton at tliat 

 time distinctly remembers the operation, which was necessary, 

 he said, to prepare the way for the i)lough. By peeling oiF the 

 turf, at some points traces of the stone facing of the inside ram- 

 parts may still be disco\ered. The camp is narrower at the 

 south end than at the north, but this would be necessitated by 

 the conformation of the ground, wliich is tongue-shaped, I have 



