122 RECORDS OF THE BURGH OF LOCHMABEN. 
The Provost was requested to forward the address to the 
Duke of Wellington for presentation to His Majesty. 
These notes may now fittingly be brought toa close. Ruled, 
as the burgh has been in the past, by men of wealth and position, 
we would naturally have expected that they would have done 
their utmost to have preserved intact its extensive possessions, 
and handed them down to their successors undiminished, in extent 
or value. The contrary, as we have seen, has been the case, 
and from being a burgh possessed of a tract of territory of nearly 
2000 acres in extent, it has been reduced to the necessity of 
applying to the courts to be saved from its creditors. The 
lessons of the past, however, have not been lost upon its existing 
rulers, and though the present indebtedness of the burgh is 
exactly double the amount of its liabilities in 1824, we have some- 
thing to show for our expenditure, which in the not far distant 
future will help to dispel the sadness which clouds the history of 
a burgh claiming to be the birthplace of Scotland’s greatest hero. 
In reply to a question, Mr Rae said he believed this was the 
first time that these old records had been examined from the 
earliest period up to the present time. He had not brought 
the history down later than the bankruptcy of the burgh, but he 
had stated that a judicial factor was appointed, and that was a 
gentleman who took everything he could lay his hands on. He 
wanted to take the right of fishing and other rights in the lochs 
round about the castle and other lochs, and litigation followed. 
The courts, however, decided that these rights could not be taken 
away from the inhabitants of Lochmaben, having been conferred 
upon them by charter. The only other thing the judicial factor 
did not take-was the customs or fees paid at that time for carts 
entering the burgh, but, of course, they had not these now. 
Everything was appropriated. About £150 a year was got from 
feu duties, and these were all sold. Their common good was of 
a very small amount, and consisted of some feu duties which 
they got back and amounting to £5 a year. The Town Council 
was doing all it could for the burgh. They looked after what 
property they had, and with the generosity of Provost Halliday 
and two or three others, he had no doubt that Lochmaben would 
hold its head up again. 
A number of antiquities of the burgh were exhibited by per- 
mission of the Town Council of Lochmaben. These included a 
