Transactions. 135 



My next author is Dr Richard Pococke, Bishop of Ossory, a 

 man of some note in his day. There are two manuscript journals 

 of his travels in Scotland in the library of the British Museum. 

 They have, I understand, been lately printed, in Avhole or in part, 

 by an Edinburgh Society ; but the work is not in the ]\Iuseum — at 

 least I was unable to find it — and have taken my excerpts from 

 the MSS. These journals are in the form of letters to his mother, 

 addressed " Honoured Madam." The first of the journeys recorded 

 in them was taken from Dublin to England, and the Bishop on 

 that occasion arrived about the middle of July, 1750, in Dumfiies, 

 which he describes as " pleasantly situated on the river Nith, 

 which winds so as to make a peninsula of the town and the fields 

 to the north of it." I possess a copy of an etching by Scott, of 

 Eldiu, the view being taken from a spot on the Maxwelltown side 

 a little above tlie old Foundry. It shows a scroggy down fi'om the 

 river to the New Church ; and a couple of men with guns and a 

 dog are beating the meadow on the Galloway side for game, while 

 a pack-horse and its driver are proceeding along the Lincluden 

 road, indicating the state of the Galloway thoroughfares at the 

 time. On the Dumfries side there is a steep brae to the river just 

 as I remember it before the wall was built there. " The principal 

 street," Dr Pococke proceeds, "is broad and well built of the red 

 freestone in which the country abounds. There are two churches 

 in the town, one of which, if I do not mistake, is for an Episcopal 

 congregation. They have a large building here called the Nework, 

 which, as well as I could be informed, served formerly as a ware- 

 house. There are some little remains of an old friary in the town, 

 famous in history for being the place where Cummins (who was 

 suspected by Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, to have been 

 treacherous towards him in his conduct with the English) took 

 refuge, and was murdered by the King's command, on which the 

 King was excommunicated by the Pope and the chapel for ever 

 interdicted in which the murder Avas committed ; on M'hich St. 

 Michael's, at the east end of the town, was built for the friary, 

 which has a handsome steeple to ii. There is a fine bridge here 

 over the Nith into Galloway. This bridge and a waterfall, made 

 by art to keep up the river for some uses, make a very beautiful 

 prospect from the side of the river. Boats come up to the town, 

 and ships of forty tons within two miles of it, and they have a 

 great trade in tobacco. This town maintained its loyalty in the 

 last rebellion, and severe contributions being raised on them 'twas 



