Notes o.v an Old Tradition. 19 



had it stood by itself, miglit have lent couuteiuince to it. It is a 

 charter of King Alexander II., in wliicli he gives to the monks of 

 Melrose " the lake of Dunscore, in the valley of the Nith, and the 

 pennyland which belongs to the said lake, and whatever is con- 

 tained within the said lake and land." This, if it stood alone, 

 ■inighl, 1 say, lend countenance to the theory that in the thirteenth 

 century there was a lake in the valley of the Cairn. It is true it 

 is called the valley of the Nith here — but that is clearly used in a 

 wide sense, for the same designation is employed in the title of 

 tlie two charters we have already been considei'ing, which deal 

 explicitly with the valley of the Cairn. The granting of the lake 

 too, to tlie monks of Melrose might also len<l countenance to the 

 tradition that these same monks afterwards drained a lake on 

 their property. But it seems to me that the phrase in the first 

 charter of which I have spoken, about the ford of the Cairn 

 " (looking) towards (llenessland," is, so far as it goes, 

 positive evidence that the Cairn in these days followed the same 

 course that it follows now, and consequently that there M'as then 

 in all probability no loch in its course. It must be remembered, 

 further, that there is another loch in the parish of Dunscore, viz., 

 that at Friars' Carse, which is on land which we know belonged 

 to Melrose A.l)bey, so this might quite well be the lake of the 

 charter. 



The general conclusion, then, seems to he that, so tar as the 

 monks of ^Melrose are concerned, the great engineering Avork of 

 which our traditions speaks Avas not carried through, and did 

 not need to be carried through. Whether it was cai-ried through 

 at an earlier date than theirs is, of course, another question which 

 I have at present no means of answering. 



The following is the text of the extracts from charters, of 

 which translations are given in the foregoing 2)aper : — 



I. Carta Affuicae de Valle de Nith. 



" Universis Christi tidelil:)us hoc scriptum visuris et audituris 

 AftVica, filia Edgari, salutem in Domino. Noverit universatis 

 . . . me . . . dedisse et concessisse et hac mea carta 

 contirmasse Deo et ecclesiae .Sanctae Mariae de Metros et 

 monachis ibidem Deo servientibus in lil)eram, puram, et per- 

 pctuam elemosinam nnam quartam partem plenaric villac in 

 tcrritorio de Dunscor, illam scilicet quae jacet inter Dergungal et 



