22 TrtDbsaclions. 



Scotland, us in this rare and valuable work fully set forth. 

 Incidentally treating of the great power and authority of the 

 family of Douglas, Dr Fraser says : — " Thus by rapid strides the 

 family of Douglas rose within one generation from the good Sir 

 James to be owners and rulers of the greater part of the South of 

 Scotland, as well as of considerable estates in the North. They 

 bore undisputed sway over a large portion of the shires of Lanark, 

 Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, parts of Berwickshire, and Dumfries- 

 shire, with the whole of Galloway. To this territory was added 

 for a time the earldom of Mar and lordship of Garioch. When 

 it is further considered that either nominally on behalf of the 

 King or in their own right the lords of Douglas possessed or 

 garrisoned the strong castles of Kildrummy in Mar, Jedburgh in 

 Teviotdale, the Hermitage in Liddesdale, the Thrieve in Gallo- 

 way, Tantallon in East Lothian, Lochmaben in Annandale, as 

 well as their native fortress of Douglasdale, it will be more easily 

 understood how the members of this one family were able to 

 maintain a more than royal state, and their power became dan- 

 gerous to the throne itself. Of ancient Galloway under the Lords 

 and Earls of the Douglas family there are many details of much 

 local interest. Notable among such is the chartered history of 

 the Douglas possession of the barony of the Balliols of old time, 

 the barony of Botle, which also appears to have been the first 

 landed possession of the Douglases in Galloway. In the year 

 1325 it appears King Robert the Bruce granted a charter of the 

 lands of Botle, totam terram nostram de Botle, in Galwidia, cum 

 suis pertinenciis, etc., to the good Sir James. In the year 1342 

 Hugh Douglas, the brother of Sir James Douglas, resigned the 

 same lands. Further, in or about the year 1348 a.d. William, 

 Lord of Douglas (afterwards the first Earl), granted to his god- 

 fathei", William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, the lands of 

 Knokys, Sevenkirks, Kenmore, Logan, and Colennauch, in the 

 barony of Botle in Galloway." — (Reg. Hon. de Morton, ii., 10.) 

 During nearly the whole of the 1 6th century the records give but 

 few details touching the Bridge. However, you incidentally learn 

 the existence of a fund, then known familiarly as " The Brig 

 Werk," to which all freemen and burgesses had from use and wont 

 been accustomed to subscribe as one of the known penalties of 

 their elevation and future existence as duly constituted freemen. 

 From the great diametrical change which has since that time 

 taken place in the purchasing power of money, to even form an 



