190 Kenmure Castle. 



There is also a proviso attached that the rest of the common 

 soldiers are likewise to have the benefit of the aforesaid articles. 

 These articles therefore completely destroy the old familiar 

 tradition of the Viscount sitting in his chair in the Lowran Glen 

 and watching his bonnie house of Kenmure in flames. Before 

 surrender the castle may have undergone a preliminary bombard- 

 ment, but very little damage was done. This is proved by the 

 fact that it was all right, and still inhabited a few years after- 

 wards. Grose says twenty or thirty cannon balls were found in 

 the precincts, and one was found lately. It is now shown in the 

 garden as a memento of Cromwell's bombardment. 



In 1654 the Viscount was captured and imprisoned in Edin- 

 burgh Castle, but he escaped out of a window. His estates 

 were forfeited, and a reward offered for his capture, dead or 

 alive. Tradition says that he wandered about the country dis- 

 guised as a hawker, and was the author of the old song " Clout 

 the Caldron." He survived the restoration, and married a lady 

 of the bed chamber, whom he deserted. He went to Greenlaw 

 old fortalice, and died there in 1663. 



Divergent Authorities. 



I notice in Mr M'Math's excellent article on Kenmure, in 

 the "Scots Peerage," vol. v. page 121, that he attributes the 

 hero of the old song " O, Kenmure's on and awa', Willie," to 

 this Viscount. We all esteem Mr M'Math as one of our most 

 enthusastic and well informed Galloway Bibliophiles, yet I 

 cannot agree with him in the promulgation of such a theory. My 

 opinion is that it was made on William, the 6th Viscount, who 

 espoused the Jacobite cause in the rebellion of 1715. Such an 

 opinion is not only founded on historical evidence, but is also 

 supported by all our Gallovidian writers and historians. If you 

 contrast the two men, and the historical causes which they each 

 espoused, you will see clearly that all the evidence points to the 

 6th Viscount as the hero. (1) The 4th Viscount was a Royalist, 

 and he espoused the cause of Episcopacy. This was not only 

 unpopular in Galloway, but the people actually rose in arms 

 against it, and formed a "War Committee " for the purpose of 

 defending their religious liberties. (2) The soldiers under the 

 command of this Viscount were composed, we are told, of " vaga- 

 bonds and broken men "recruited hv means of Kenmure's Drum, 



