112 Field Meetings. 



From .the fields above the house a very fine prospect vs^as obtained, 

 along- the valley of the Cairn and the encircling- Stewartry hills, 

 and down the Lagg Glen, and there was noted a great stone cairn, 

 partly demolished, which is understood to mark an ancient place 

 of burial. In one of the lower fields is a giant oak embedded in 

 the earth, where it had fallen ages ago. 



A short business meeting was held at Dardarroch, whsn Mr 

 John Houston of Brownrigg, Dr Semple, science master of Dum- 

 fries Academy, and Mr Waddell, headmaster of Loreburn Street 

 School, were admitted as members of the society. Tea was then 

 handed round on the lawn, and Mr Barbour, architect, vice- 

 president of the society, expressed to Mrs Martin and the members 

 of her family the great indebtedness of the members for their 

 kind invitation and generous hospitality and for the opportunity 

 afforded them of seeing the varied and extremely interesting 

 collections. 



On the return drive a halt was made at Brockhillstone in 

 order to examine a large boulder from which the farm presumably 

 takes its name. It is of coarse porphyry, and was computed to 

 weig-h fifteen tons. The most natural hypothesis is that it was 

 dropped from an iceberg which helped to furrow the valley in the 

 glacial age. The origin of the name is more puzzling. The 

 locally accepted explanation is that the little hill on the side of 

 which it rests was a generation or more ago infested by badgers, 

 or " brocks," and came to be known as the brocks' hill. In a 

 cottage garden on the farm is a wonderful little fernery, compris- 

 ing a number of rare varieties, all of healthy growth, and adorned 

 with numerous querns and a quaint sun-dial face, dated 1680, and 

 having on it the initials " I W," " M F." Both the ferns and the 

 antiquities represent the gathering of the late Mr Andrew Laurie, 

 builder, a man of cultivated taste. 



A brief inspection was made of the scanty remains of Lag 

 Tower, of which the persecuting Sir Robert Grierson was, it is 

 believed, the last occupant, and who also, there is reason to believe, 

 was born within its walls. It has been a square keep, roughly 

 built of unhewn stone, and with enclosing wall and arched 

 entrance. The grim baronet had left it long before his death, 

 first for Rockhall, afterwards for a house in Dumfries. The latest 

 minutes of the " court of the barony," at which the baron bailie 



