184 FIELD MEETINGS. 
Mrs Robinson-Douglas, who were accompanied by Mr and Mrs 
Ovens of Torr and Professor Scott-Elliot and Mrs Scott-Elliot 
of Newton. The party were first shown Mr Robinson-Douglas’s 
notable collection of beetles—a collection stated by Professor 
Scott-Elliot, the president of the society, to be one of the best 
private collections in the country. The company also had the 
privilege of seeing a beautiful collection of photographs by Mrs 
Robinson-Douglas. There was a fine array of Galloway books, 
in which the company were much interested. One is a manu- 
script record of an action at law brought by “Sir Robert Max- 
well of Orchyardtoun, Bart., against Sir Thomas Maxwell, 
Barbara and Agnes Maxwell, and others,’’ and which dragged 
its course through the courts for a period of sixteen years. This 
Sir Robert was “ The Wandering Heir ’”’ of Miss Goldie’s “ Recol- 
lections,’’ who, reared in France and entering the French army, 
came to this country as a soldier of Prince Charlie. He 
narrowly escaped being shot at Dumfries, where he was captured 
after the slaughter of Culloden, made his way back to France, 
then returned to this country and began a legal process to eject 
the cousin who was in possession of his estate. The trouble 
dated back to the time of Sir Robert Maxwell, fifth of Orchard- 
ton, who, dying in 1729, had settled the estate on heirs male of 
his second marriage, to the exclusion of an older son, and stipu- 
lated in the settlement that if any of the heirs should be Popish 
and profess the Romish religion they should be debarred and the 
right of succession should pass to the next in blood being a 
Protestant. Sir Robert, prior to raising his suit, subscribed the 
formula against Popery, and alleged that at the time of his 
father’s death he was a minor, not in a position to make his elec- 
tion of religion, and that he had been purposely reared a Roman 
Catholic and kept out of the way. He won his plea, but the 
year before his death (which occurred in 1786) he was obliged to 
sell the estate, being one of many Scottish landed proprietors 
who were involved in the failure of the Ayr bank of Douglas & 
Heron. The purchaser of Orchardton was Mr James Douglas, 
great-grandfather of Mr Robinson-Douglas, who, along with 
his brother Sir William (founder of the towns of Castle-Douglas 
and Newton-Stewart and builder of Gelston Castle), was a 
prosperous London and American merchant. A striking portrait 
of the old gentleman, by Raeburn, is one of a series of family 
