314 Field Meetings. 



quary than collections of wooden troughs, out of which earlier 

 in the season the sheep had nibbled their sustenance. 



The Castle of Rusko, we are told, was built by the family 

 of Acorsane or Corsane. It afterwards passed to the Gordons 

 of Lochinvar, Sir Robert Gordon marrying Marion, daughter of 

 Sir Robert Corsane. The Gordon arms are carved over the 

 doorway. The Gordons sold Rusko to the M'Guffoks, an old 

 Wigtownshire family, from whom it was transferred in 1736 to 

 one of the Hannays of Kirkdale, in whose family it remained until 

 about twenty-five years ago, when it became the property of the 

 late Mr Murray Stewart. 



Cardoness Castle. 

 The party then drove to Gatehouse, and here they were 

 joined by the Rev. F. VV. Saunders, minister of Anwoth, and 

 Mr Salmon, headmaster of Fleetside Public School. A brief 

 interval allowed the visitors to have a saunter through the little 

 town. Luncheon was served in the Angel Hotel, and then the 

 party walked forward to Cardoness Castle, where they were 

 met by Mr T. H. M'Gaw, builder, Gatehouse, who, at the 

 request of Sir William and Lady Maxwell, took the party in 

 ■charge, and showed them the interior of the castle. Mr G. W. 

 Shirley read a short account of the history of the building. The 

 castle, it was set forth, is an oblong, rectangular tower or keep 

 of five storeys. It is roofless, and occupies the whole apex of 

 a cone-shaped rocky knoll, now covered with high trees. The 

 castle rises to a height of about 50' feet. The walls have a 

 thickness of 7^ feet,- and with the exception of the chimney 

 stalks, seem to be intact. A circular doorway enters directly on 

 a cross passage four feet wide, and fronting it are two other 

 doorways, the entrances to vaulted chambers in the basement. 

 These chambers are about 16 feet high, owing to the removal 

 of the intermediate or entre sol floor. Branching off the stair- 

 case is a gallery or narrowed passage leading to a recess imme- 

 diately above the main doorway. In the stone floor of this 

 gallery, immediately above the passage, is an aperture which was 

 useful for scrutinising unseen any suspicious visitor. " If he was 

 coming on an unfriendly errand it gave facility for molesting 

 jand expelling him with fire-arms, stones, boiling lead, or some 

 such missile.'' Leading from the .staircase already referred to 



