106 Field Meetings. 



tion obtained from a Dumfries dealer is a flint lock of last 

 century, with a little case for the flints ingeniously formed in the 

 butt of the musket. The arm was formerly the property of the 

 late John Brodie, who used to assert that it had belonged to 

 Burns. 



In the dining-room are a number of striking family portraits. 

 Two of them represent Sir James Veitch, Lord Eliock, a judge 

 of the Court of Session, regarding whose impetuous wooing by a 

 north-country lady a curious tale was told at a recent meeting of 

 the society. One of the portraits — a full length — is by Raeburn. 

 Another of the portraits, that of Colonel Veitch, grand-uncle of 

 the present proprietor of the estate, is by Sir John Gordon 

 Watson. The very handsome gifts made to Mr and Mrs Veitch 

 by the parishioners of Kilmersdon, Somersetshire, of which he 

 was for thirty-three years the respected rector, were also shown 

 to the visitors. 



Eliock was acquired by the family in whose hands it now is 

 soon after the rising of 1745, being part of the forfeited estate of 

 the Earl of Carnwath. They belonged to Peeblesshire, and in 

 the grounds is a sun dial, of very perfect construction, which 

 bears the family arms and the name and date — " Veitch de 

 Glen, 1722." 



Before quitting the house, in which they were hospitably 

 entertained to afternoon tea, Mr Murray, George Street, voiced 

 the thanks of the company to Mr and Mrs Veitch for their 

 kindness. They then walked up the side of the Garpel Burn, 

 where the oak, the beech, and the shield ferns grow luxuriantly, 

 to a picturesque waterfall. Tradition represents a Covenanter 

 as hiding in a cavity in the side of this linn and receiving intelli- 

 gence concerning the movements of the military of the district 

 from a well affected domestic in the Eliock household, who would 

 steal out in the evening and affect to deliver a soliloquy, full of 

 palpable hints, under a large oak that grew by the side of the 

 stream. A member of the party had another tale to tell of the 

 Garpel. Some time in last century the village of Kirkconnel 

 was the residence of a noted wool dealer. At that time 

 the wool was carried there on pack horses by the ordinary hill 

 tracks, and the farmer of Auchenhessnane, in Tynron, was con- 

 veying his wool on a pack horse to Kirkconnel, and in passing 

 over Garpel Burn, on the lands of Eliock, the pack of wool got 

 displaced, fell into the burn, and was much wet. Adjusting his 



