Tue CastLte oF DumrriEs. 93 
for military operations over a wide area of country around. One 
of the greatest of England’s monarchs, Edward the First, reared 
its defences under his personal supervision ; it was taken and re- 
taken by a Scottish King, no less famous, Robert de Bruce ; and 
with associations so interesting we submit that the vestiges of the 
ancient Edwardian Dyke at Dumfries is not less worthy of pre- 
servation than is the fragment of the wall of Berwick, which is 
now to be cared for and saved from further waste. 
We may add that locally the castle was an important institu- 
tion. Dumfries being the royal castle of the county constituted 
Dumfries a royal burgh, and the castle the headquarters of the 
sheriff as the royal authority over the shire. The baronies of 
the shire in a number of cases, as has been seen, were held by 
tenure of ward of the castle, which was also the head place or 
caput of the county within the old bounds, including Galloway on 
this side of Cree. Thus, as Dr George Neilson has shown, 
Archibald the Grim by charter provision of 1367, for his lordship 
of Galloway, was to pay a white rose of blench form yearly at our 
Castle of Dumfries. 
Sth January, 1906. 
Chairman—Mr Rosert Murray, V.P. 
New Memsers.—Mrs Arnott, Sunnymead, Maxwelltown ; 
Miss Chrystie, Irving Street ; and Rev. J. Murphy, Park Road. 
NOTES ON SOUTHERN NIGERIA. By James Wart, M.A. 
(Summarised by the Author.) 
The Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was formed in 1900 
by the amalgamation of the Niger Coast Protectorate with that 
‘part of the Royal Niger Company’s Territory which lay to the 
south of Idah, on the River Niger. The High Commissioner of 
Southern Nigeria was made Governor and Commander-in-Chief 
of Lagos in 1904. The remaining portions of the Royal Niger 
Company’s territories form the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. 
The estimated area of Southern Nigeria is 65,000 square 
