224 Fretp MEETINGS. 
? 
wheel type; or, as it was often called, a “turnpike,’’ which goes 
to the battlements, and off it open the various apartments of the 
tower. The great hall is now the library. The apartment which 
forms the second storey was the chief bedchamber. Here, in an 
angle of the wall, is a little chamber from which a narrow square 
opening in the wall is carried right to the foundations of the 
Tower. Tradition has it that this communicated with a secret 
passage cut through the freestone rock from Bonshaw to the 
neighbouring tower of Robgill, about a mile distant; and that 
through this passage, in time of need, food was conveyed to the 
garrison of Bonshaw, and drawn up by a rope through this channel 
in the wall. A hole in the rock is to be seen at the Robgill end, 
which is said to have been the opening to this tunnel. A corre- 
sponding but smaller opening is carried up from the roof of the 
little chamber in the wall at Bonshaw to a still smaller secret 
apartment above, in which a man might be concealed, and who 
might be fed through that opening. The third storey has the 
original heavy roof beams still in position, fastened together by 
oak pins instead of the modern nails. This is now a billiard- 
room. On the battlements there is a pathway along all four 
sides of the tower, and on each side there are double openings, 
through which molten lead or boiling oil could be poured on 
assailants. 
The tower has its traditional ghost of a hapless daughter of 
the house, who was thrown from the battlements because of her 
determination to wed a member of the house of Maxwell, with 
whom the Irvings had a long and bitter feud; but, of course, it 
does not walk by day, and it is disappointing to learn that it has 
not been known to walk at all within living memory. 
Colonel Irving showed his visitors some interesting family 
records ; among them the marriage contract of Margaret John- 
stone, of the Annandale family, and Christopher Irving, younger 
of Bonshaw, in 1566. It bore to be signed “ at the Lockhouse,”’ 
which we take to be Lochwood, the ancient seat of the John- 
stones, near Moffat. The father of the bride signed himself 
simply “ Johnstone.’? Edward Irving of Bonshaw is made to say 
that he signs it “ with my hand at the pen, led by a notary, at my 
command, because I cannot write.’’ The Colonel mentioned 
that this Irving was a striking proof that learning is not essential 
to soldiering, for at the age of ninety he charged at the head of 
re 
