Field Meetings. 225 



the opportunity of seeing a print of that tower — also of the square 

 keep pattern — in ruins, as it existed in 1789, with farm buildings 

 beside it. Traces of the foundations are also, they were 

 informed, still to be seen. A climb to the top of the tower — 

 about eighty feet in height — was rewarded by a magnificent pros- 

 pect over the fertile and well-wooded plain of Annandale and the 

 encircling hills, and by an exhilarating breath of the breezy upper 

 air. The walls of the tower are, in the lower storey, from nine 

 to ten feet thick. The original outer entrance, which is sur- 

 mounted by a bold piece of rope moulding, has been preserved as 

 an inner doorway. 



In the house are many treasures of art and antiquity and 

 trophies of the chase. In the vestibule are placed two Roman 

 altars, brought, it is understood, from the military station at 

 Birrens, near Kirtlebridge. Great heads of the Moose and the 

 Canadian Wapiti adorn the inner hall. In another apartment is 

 a collection of finely antlered stag heads. A pair of native 

 partridges largely white in feather afford an example of the 

 sports of plumage. A very beautiful specimen of the Reeve's 

 pheasant, measuring six feet from the point of the beak to the 

 tip of its extraordinarily long tail, fell to the gun in the district, 

 but was doubtless an escape from a private preserve. Among 

 the many paintings which enrich the walls, special admiration was 

 bestowed on Sir I-uke Fildes's bright representation of "The 

 Village Wedding." 



Mr A. Tweedie, Annan, brought with him and exhibited to 

 the party an interesting relic of the local military organisation 

 of a century or more ago. This was a yellow silk flag, inscribed 

 in gilt lettering, within a wreath of thisle, rose, and shamrock: — 

 "Annandale and Eskdale Regt. Dumfriesshire Local Militia." 

 It is now the property of Mr John Brown, Howes. Mr Tweedie 

 is himself the possessor of a manuscript document, bearing to be 

 the "Muster Roll, Hoddom Division D.B.V.I., 24th June, 

 1806." The letters, of course, stand for Dumfriesshire Battalion 

 Volunteer Infantry, a forre that was organised when our appre- 

 hensions were of French — not German — invasion. We reproduce 

 the list of names for the satisfaction of the curious. 



Officers— Lient. John Arnoftt, Ensign Widliam Fai-rics. Ser- 

 geants—Samuel Gibson, Walter Scott. Corporals— William Beattie, 



