An Antiquary's Notes. 401 



and confirming to Archibald the Grim for his diligent and accept- 

 able service, efficiently and effectively rendered to David II., all 

 the royal lands of Galloway between the water of Cree and the 

 water of Nith, "for the pacification and justification " of which 

 the said Archibald made no small expenditure and labour in his 

 own person, and which lands are granted with all the feudal 

 pertinents and lordship " cum burgis ' ' — with the burghs and 

 liberties of burghs therein as freely as Edward Bruce, our dearest 

 uncle of good memory, held the same, rendering in name of 

 blenche farme a white rose annually at our castle at Dumfries at 

 the feast of St. Peter, " ad vincula." Here, too, is the grant on 

 5th June, 1358, to Thomas Murray, of the Barony of Hawick 

 and Spruceton, on the Tweed. Here also is a strange document 

 — the verdict of a Roxburgh jury in 1320 in answer to a question 

 as to the tenure by which the Lord De Vescy had held Spruce- 

 ton, a verdict declaring that he had held Spruceton 

 regaliter, that he held it regally by the same liberties as King 

 Alexander held his lands when he reigned, and that he had the 

 right to have his own justiciary, his own chamberlain, his chan- 

 cellor, his crowner, his sergeants, and also his standard measures, 

 in the manner of the said King Alexander. Here, further, is a 

 charter of 1322 by King Robert the Bruce in favour of his 

 natural son, Robert, of the lordship of Spruceton, among the 

 witnesses to which are the Abbot of Arbroath, the Chancellor, 

 and Randolph, Earl of Murray — that Randolph who redeemed 

 so gallantly at Bannockburn the rose that fell from his chaplet 

 early in the fight — the Abbot of Arbroath, the patriotic prelate, 

 who, in the intervals of his vocation as statesman and chancellor, 

 found leisure to indite that Latin song of Bannockburn on which 

 so few students of Scottish history have ever deigned to bestow 

 their attention. Here, lastly, is another charter of uncertain 

 date by Robert the Bruce in favour of his kinsman, William 

 Murray, of half the tenement of Stewarton, in Cunningham — a 

 deed to which the witnesses, besides the Abbot of Arbroath, are 

 Sir James of Douglas and Sir Robert of Keith — the one, famous 

 as the daring soldier of infinite resource, "the good Lord James," 

 right-hand man of Robert the Bruce in the War of Independence ; 

 while the other was Keith, the marshal, who led the charge of 

 horse against the English Archers at Bannockburn. It is a pro- 

 cession of noble names we meet in these charters and the con- 



