Transactions. 163 



of battle rolled over the hills it was to these belfries that the 

 atlrighted inhabitants Had. Probably the clocheriuni of Annan 

 served a double purpose in the 13th century. We know for a 

 fact that it did so in the 1 6th when Annan steeple was a stronghold 

 manned by a garrison, strengthened by ramparts, and fortified 

 with artillery. Annan, it must be owned, had more need than 

 most towns for a church in which her sons could watch and fight 

 as well as pray. Nevertheless, the use made of the belfry in 

 1299 is a damaging argument against the existence of a castle 

 then. Had there been a castle, what need could there have been 

 to repair the belfry to guard the stores 1 Even a very weak castle 

 could be rendered strong by a few hours' digging of trenches, and 

 the erection of a palisade.* Such were the peels of Edward I. 



X. The Carlaverock Cam^Jaign (1300). 



The events of 1299 shewed King Edward that the conquest of 

 Scotland was not yet accomplished. Mighty preparations were 

 made for another invasion in 1300, but through a variety of 

 causes its whole energy was dissipated in a siege of Carlaverock 

 and an ineffective raid into Galloway. Early in July a great 

 army mustered at Carlisle, and marched north. One historian 

 says that on the journey Edward encamped at Annan, f This 

 must have been about the 3d or 4th of July, for on the 6th he had 

 reached Applegarth ;j on the 8th he was at Tinwald ;§ on the 

 10th at Dumfries, and on the 12tli at Carlaverock. || The castle, 

 then a powerful fortress, was bravely garrisoned, though a mere 

 handful of Scots stood behind its battlements. To his vexation, 

 Edward was forced to undertake a regular siege, with his great 

 army to beleaguer a three-cornered tower held by but 60 men. 

 Catapult engines of all sorts, war wolves and battering rams, all 

 the cumbrous machinery of war, had to be brought into requisi- 

 tion. There was carting from Carlisle and Lochmaben, there 

 was shipment from Skimburness, tliere was no small loss of time 

 and temper before the great stone-slings and batteries could be 



* See my Pefl. Us meMning and derivation ((>. P. Johnstou, Edinburgh, 

 1894), shewing that this was the character of the peels at Lochmaben, 

 Dumfries, and elsewhere. 



fRishanger (R.S.), 439. 



XLiher Quotidianus Garderobae, 64. 



%Ibid., 64. 



Wlbid,, pref. Ixviii. 



