116 Transactions. 



probably the most memorable event tliat Las occurred in the 

 history of the parish : — 



On several occasions be preached in Galloway, and in January, 

 1681, he visited Troqueer at the request of his old parishioners. 

 He preached at Dalscairth to a vast assemblage, and the Laird of 

 Dalscairth accompanied him to Lochmaben, and back again by 

 Rockhall to Dalscairth, where he again preached on a green near 

 the liouse. On his way back to Edinburgh he preached at Sundy- 

 well, in Dunscoi-e. It was a time of deep snow, but the people 

 set a chair for him, and pulling bunches of heather, sat on the 

 moorside. Dalscairth accom})anied him, and they were obliged 

 to take the road at God's venture, the hills being loaded with 

 snow. They shunned the pass of Enterkin, and went by Lead- 

 hills as safest. But the people seemed to waylay him, and 

 flocked about him to baptise their children. After this he 

 returned no more to the South. 



In this same year he was apprehended in Edinburgh, and 

 sentenced by the Privy Council to be imprisoned on the Bass 

 Rock, where, after four years' cruel confinement, he died in 1685. 

 His body was brought ashore and buried in the churchyard of 

 North Berwick, where a handsome tombstone and long 

 inscription mark his grave. 



In the olden time the Griersons of Lag possessed large estates 

 "betwixt the waters," i.e., the rivers Nith and Urr. In this 

 parish they owned all tlie land soutii of the present Troqueer 

 road, including Ryedale and the Moat; to Nethertown and 

 Dalscairth ; and had a residence called Lag Hall, on or near to 

 the site of the mansion-house of Mavisgrove, a little below which 

 at the riverside is still in use for vessels a small quay called the 

 Port of Laghall. In these days the house upon Troqueer Holm 

 was called the Hall House. 



Sir Robert Grierson, the " Redgauntlet " of Scott, who obtained 

 unenviable notoriety for his persecution of the Covenanters, was 

 made a baronet by King Charles II. in 1685, and died in 1733. 



In these times land in the parish was described as within 

 the regality of Lincluden, but regalities were abolished in 1746. 



I heard the late Mr Pagan of Curriestanes, who was born in 

 1803, say that he had seen Hogging at the cart's-tail through the 

 streets of Dumfries, and a pillory in use in the Brigend. 



But an older man was the late Mr Welsb, born in 1794, who 

 told me he had seen the funeral of my wife's grandfather. General 



