FIELD MEETINGS. 



First Field Meeting— June 10. 



The following Report of the Meeting is taken from the 

 Dumfries and Gallotvay Standard of 17th June, 1899 : — 



In Morton, Fenpont, Tynron, and Keir. 



The first Field Meeting of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural 

 History and Antiquarian Society for the present summer was held 

 on Saturday last ; and it took the form of a circular pleasure drive, 

 covering some 46 miles of road in Mid-Xithsdale. The objective 

 point was Auchenbrack in the Shinnel valley, where the party were 

 the guests of Mr Wallace in the afternoon. They proceeded to it 

 by way of Thornhill, Penpont, and Tynron. and made the return 

 journey through the parishes of Keir and Dunscore. A tourist 

 coach quitted Dumfries with seventeen passengers ; and accessions 

 at Thornhill and Tynron brought up the number to some two 

 dozen. The day was one of brilliant sunshine, and the drive, by 

 hedgerows snowy every here and there with the May and the 

 elder-flower, by banks of golden broom, and lines of trees in the 

 tender freshness of early summer garniture, was a very pleasant 

 experience. There was much, too, of interest to engage attention. 

 The stretch of excellent highway to Thornhill had its peeps of 

 Ellisland and Friars' Carse, and of the graveyard that holds the 

 remains of the notorious " Lagg." When Auldgirth Bridge way 

 crossed, the fact was recalled that Carlyle's father — the grand- 

 father of Miss M. Carlyle Aitken, one of the party — worked at 

 the building of it, as an apprentice with Mr Walter Stewart of 

 Ewanston. grandfather of Mrs Johnstone, of Victoria Terrace, 

 another member of the company, and who also was the contractor 

 for the New Bridge at Dumfries. All readers of Carlyle know 

 with what veneration he regarded this piece of solid masonry 



