ANNAN REFERENCE IN DiIARY OF GEORGE Fox. 159 
with the Journal as a whole, or even with any considerable part 
of it, that we have now to deal. We shall confine ourselves to 
the elucidation of one comparatively small point. 
In 1657, a year before the death of Oliver Cromwell, George 
Fox visited Scotland. He entered the country from Cumberland, 
accompanied by a number of friends, including Captain William 
Osborne, who had gone over the Border to meet him, and Robert 
Widders, “a thundering man against hypocrisy, deceit, and the 
rottenness of the priests ’’ (i.e., of the Presbyterian ministers). 
Then Fox goes on to say:—* The first night we came into 
Scotland we lodged at an inn. The innkeeper told us an Earl 
lived about a quarter of a mile off who had a desire to see me; 
and had left word at his house that if ever I came into Scotland 
I should send him word. He told us there were three draw- 
bridges to his house, and that it would be nine o’clock before 
the third bridge was drawn. Finding we had time in the evening, 
we walked to his house. He received us very lovingly ; and said 
he would have gone with us on our journey, but he was previously 
engaged to go to a funeral. After we had spent some time with 
him we parted very friendly and returned to our inn. Next morn- 
ing we travelled on, and passing through Dumfries, came to 
Douglas, where we met with some friends; and then passed to 
the Heads, where we had a blessed meeting in the name of Jesus 
and left Him in the midst ’’ (Journal, Vol. I., pp. 393-4). 
Who was this unnamed Earl, and where was his house ? 
Supposing Fox to have come by the ordinary road from Carlisle 
to Dumfries, this inquiry is confined within manageable limits. 
Dr Hodgkin, the well-known Quaker historian and the author of 
an admirable biography of Fox, suggests that the Earl may have 
been the Earl of Nithsdale, and his residence Caerlaverock 
Castle. No doubt the mention of the three drawbridges does 
seem to indicate some such moated fortress as Caerlaverock was. 
But it was at that time quite a common thing for the residences 
of the nobility and gentry to be surrounded with moats. Thus 
Mr Barbour informs me that in carrying out the restoration of 
Comlongon Castle some years ago the remains of a fosse, 40 feet 
wide and 20 feet deep, had to be dealt with. And there are at 
least two reasons which compel us to reject the suggestion of Dr 
Hodgkin. In the first place, the Earl of Nithsdale of this period 
—Robert, second Earl, known as “the philosopher,’’ from his 
