166 BuRNS AND MOFFAT. 
dale Arms, and I think we may safely assume that Rae’s Inn in 
1795 occupied nearly the same site. Mr Fingland, the present 
owner, informs me that his titles, which date from 1799, are in 
James Rae’s name. The fact of the titles not bearing an earlier 
date is easily accounted for. Formerly all the buildings with 
their grounds in Moffat were held from the superior on short 
leaves, and from about the year 1772 till the end of the century 
nearly all these leaves expired and fell again into the hands of 
the superior and his successor, the Earl of Hopetoun, 
who removed a great number of the buildings altogether, 
and set back the building line on the west side of 
High Street at least 30 feet, and then re-feued the ground again. 
Mr Rae’s original title had in all likelihood lapsed, and the 
present title represents the refeuing and rebuilding of the 
premises, which were acquired by Mrs Cranstoun in 1848, and 
afterwards altered by her to the Buccleuch Hotel, as we now 
know it. The Buccleuch Hotel will be at least 30 feet back from 
where the original building stood previous to 1799, Churchgate, 
the entrance to the town on the Dumfries road, at that time being 
only a street twelve feet wide. So that, taking into consideration 
the history of this property and its connection with the Raes, the 
fact that James Rae is always described as a vintner, the quality 
of the visitors he accommodated, as shown by MacRitchie’s list, 
all point to Rae’s Inn being a house of superior character and 
accommodation, and justify the assumption that the famous 
epigram was written in a building now non-existent but some- 
where near the site of the present Buccleuch Hotel. It is pos- 
sible that at some future time some definite information may crop 
up and decide the point ; meantime I have been unable to get any 
further information. 
Nothing is known authentically about the further history of 
the pane of glass, except that it has disappeared. ‘Tradition 
asserts that it was taken away to Russia by the Czar Nicholas I. 
when he visited Scotland, but a more feasible explanation may be 
given. In 1779 relics of the poet were not so highly prized as 
they are now, and when Rae’s old inn was removed the window 
with the pane of glass would most likely disappear along with 
the building. 
Another of our local links with the poet is the famous 
convivial song, “O, Willie brewed a peck o’ maut.’’ A number 
