Dr Archibald's "Curiosities of Dumfries." 51 



antiquities and natural history of Scotland have long been out of 

 date, and are now little known, he deserves to be remembered for 

 the untiring zeal with which he prosecuted his inquiries. 



In collecting- information, Sibbald sought the assistance of 

 men of education in the different districts of the country. Nichol- 

 son in his Scottish Historical Library has given us the names of 

 the most prominent of them. From this source we learn that from 

 Dumfries he enlisted the services of Dr Archibald, from Galloway 

 those of the Rev. Andrew Symson. At Sibbald's death the great 

 part of his MSS. collections was purchased for the Advocates' 

 Library, where they are preserved. Among them are copies, and 

 in some cases perhaps the originals, of most of the district reports 

 on natural history and antiquities. Archibald's as well as Symson's 

 are contained with several others iu a small quarto volume, in 

 which they have been very neatly engrossed by the same hand, 

 apparently about the close of the seventeenth century. 



Dr George Archibald, who, as just explained, was Sibbald's 

 correspondent in Dumfries, was the son of the Rev. Robert 

 Archibald, minister of Dunscore from 1651 to 1662, and one cf the 

 four hundred uncompromising Presbyterians who, on the re-estab- 

 lishment of Episcopacy by Charles 11., gave up their livings in the 

 Church of Scotland rather than do violence to their convictions. 

 Mr Archibald died in Edinburgh in 1688. About that time his son 

 settled in Dumfries as a medical practitioner, and dying there in 

 1715, was buried in St. Michael's Churchyard. "Resting on the 

 east side of the sacred edifice, near the north-east corner," writes 

 Mr M'Dowall (" Memorials of St. Michael's," p. 371), " we discover 

 a large loose slab, which commemorates George Archibald. Neigh- 

 bouring stones press upon the relic so closely as almost to veil it 

 from cursory observation; but, neglected though it now is, it must 

 when entire have presented an imposing appearance with its carved 

 escutcheon and richly-chased border. It might with great pro- 

 priety be removed from its obscure position, and placed near the 

 kindred memorials of his mother and his second wife, where room 

 for it could easily be found*, below the middle window of the 

 church on the south side. This ' Docter of Medicine,' as he is 

 termed in the inscription, was one of many distinguished medical 

 men produced by the burgh both in ancient and modern times. 

 . . . Crossing the stone in oblong fashion is the following 

 brief epitaph : Clarus in arte fuit medica, pius «?quus amator 



