Field Meetings. 219 



It is a ba}' which affords good anchorage in deep water ; and has in 

 successive years been one of the flotilla's manoeuvring points. 

 On the way we pass St. Medan's golf course — a good sporting 

 one on the cliffs — which serves residents at Whithorn and Port- 

 William, although at a distance of several miles from both, and 

 in the country houses of the neighbourhood. Arrived at Mon- 

 reith, we find the imprint of the scholar at the entrance gate, as 

 we afterwards find it all about. On one of the pillars is carved 

 the benediction " Pax entrantibus ' ' (Peace to those who enter) ; 

 on the other " Salus exeuntibus " (Safety to those who leave). 

 By a winding and umbrageous avenue we approach the stately 

 mansion, set on a piece of rising ground from which a lawn slopes 

 down to the White Loch of Myretoun, a beautiful sheet of water, 

 over half a mile in length and nearly a quarter of a mile broad, set 

 in a woodland frame deep in foliage. Sir Herbert Maxwell, the 

 seventh baronet of the line, traces a common descent with the 

 Earls of Nithsdale from the first Lord Maxwell of Caerlaverock, 

 whose second son, Sir Edward Maxwell of Tinwald, obtained the 

 lands of Monreith in 148L To that barony was added in the 

 seventeenth century the barony of Myretoun, following upon a 

 marriage with a lady of the house of M'Culloch, its former pos- 

 sessors. The original house of Monreith was at a place called 

 the Dowies, some three miles from the present seat of the family, 

 which was erected some hundred years ago on the Myretoun lands. 

 The old Castle of Myretoun, to which the family removed in the 

 seventeenth century, is a picturesque object in the Monreith poli- 

 cies. A cross set up in front of the modern house is the subject 

 of a curious legend associated with the first change of residence. 

 It had long stood at the Dowies, and when Sir William Maxwell 

 entered on the occupation of Myretoun Castle he desired to take 

 with him an object which had something of the character of a 

 family heirloom. It was accordingly lifted and put into a cart; 

 but in crossing a burn which divides the two baronies the cart was 

 upset and the cross precipitated into the water. In the fall it 

 broke in two, and flames were emitted from the fracture. An old 

 woman endowed with second sight at the same time appeared on 

 the bank and exclaimed: — " If ye tak' that cross frae the barony, 

 ill luck will aye follow the house o' Monreith." And the story 

 must be true, observed Sir Herbert with a twinkle in his eye as he 



