Field Meetings. -223 



and courtesy which they had displayed. This was seconded by 

 the Rev. J. L. Dinwiddie, Ruthwell, and was heartily responded 

 to by the company. 



Major Critchley afterwards replied in a few words, in the 

 course of which he thanked the Society for their visit, and said 

 that he hoped that when next they came to Stapleton circum- 

 stances would permit of them doing so in greater numbers. 



The party then drove to Annan by way of Sandhills, the 

 Dumfries members continuing their journey by train. 



2'Wi Auf/ust, 1910. 



KEXMURE CASTLE. - 



{From the Dumfries and Galloway Standard, August 31 and 

 September 3, 1910.) 



A party of over thirty members of Dumfries.shire and Gallo- 

 way Natural History and Antiquarian Society made a coaching 

 excursion through part of the Glenkens on Saturday, and spent 

 part of the afternoon at Kenmure Castle, the historic home of the 

 head of the southern Gordons. Concentrating at Castle-Douglas, 

 they first drove in two well-equipped three-horse brakes by way 

 of Crossmichael and Parton to Dairy. They were fortunate in 

 respect of weather, which was breezy and dry, except for one 

 sharp shower when they were well on the way on the homeward 

 journey. But along the route they were confronted with results 

 of the long-continued deluge, which had been interrupted only 

 for that single day. In the neighbourhood of Crossmichael 

 \'illage — where the church of that parish looks across to its high- 

 set sister of Balmaghie, " the Kirk Above Dee Water " — the Dee 

 in its long level reach had overflowed the meadows to an unusual 

 extent. Here and there the top of a stampcole of hay was seen 

 just breaking the surface of the waste of water. Others were 

 placed in line barely outside the flood mark. Another stood 

 islanded on a little hummock of land. And stooks of the earlv 

 harvester were also sitting in water. A halt was called opposite 

 the well-preserved Crofts Moat — " a large, well-defined specimen, 

 rising in several stages to a rovmd grassy plat about 280 feet in 



