Transactions. 59 



Sheriffs and the Magistrates of Burghs. The case of the 

 aged and disabled poor was dealt with by the Act of 1535, 

 who were to be provided for by a tax levied in their native 

 parish : and in parishes where the assessment and the volun- 

 tary contributions at the church-doors were not sufficient to 

 maintain the poor they were allowed to beg, but not beyond 

 the parish bounds. There is, however, reason to believe 

 that these provisions were not strictly enforced in Scotland. 

 For a systematic poor law in vigorous operation the country 

 IS indebted to the legislative labours of the present President 

 of the Court of Session : the subordinate subject of vagi-ancy 

 still requires to be thoroughly dealt with. 



A description of the state of Dumfriesshire as regards 

 vagrancy is given in a presentment by the Justices of the 

 Peace in 1751, in which it is stated that notwithstanding 

 the Act punishing by imprisonment and death vagabonds, 

 sturdy beggars, sorners, or Egyptians, commonly called 

 gipsies, for these many years past, and especially of late 

 years, this shire and county hath been greatly infested by 

 vagabonds, sorners, and Egyptians who frequent it and 

 travel together in bands, occasioning great terror and fear 

 to the inhabitants of the county, who are forced to give 

 them quarters in their barns or kilns in order to save their 

 houses from being burnt. 



Soon afterwards in the same year the Sheriff-Depute 

 took up the subject and convened a meeting of Justices and 

 landed proprietors to whom he proposed a plan which had 

 been found to work well in the county of Berwick. The 

 meeting expressed their approval of the proposals made by 

 the Sheriff, but delayed a final decision until the Duke of 

 Buccleuch and Queensberry, the Marquis of Annandale, the 

 Earl of Hopetoun, and Viscount Stormont, who have great 

 property in the shire, be consulted. At a subsequent and 

 numerous meeting of Justices and Commissioners of Supply 

 and heritors, held on 6th August, the proposals of the Sheriff 

 were ratified, though not without a division, a minority 

 wishing to deal with vagrants only, while the majority 



