Transactions. 137 



the Church Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, killed Red Robert 

 [John] Cuming before the high altar in 1305 ; and James Lindsey 

 and Roger Kiljjatrick murdered Sir Robert Cuming in the sacristy, 

 and were excommunicated by John XX. in Avignon." 



Thomas Pennant, the distinguished naturalist, made his 

 second tour in Scotland iu the summer of 1772. Entering Dumfries 

 from the south "beyond Port Kepel," by which I suppose he 

 means Glencaple, he says : " The country on both sides of the 

 river is very beautiful, the banks decorated with numerous groves 

 and villas, richly cultivated and enclosed." Dumfries itself he 

 describes as " a very well built town, containing about 5000 souls. 

 . . . It was once possessed of a large share of the tobacco 

 trade, but at present has scarcely any commerce. The great 

 weekly markets for black cattle are of much advantage to the 

 place, and vast droves from Galloway and the shire of Ayr pass 

 through on the way to the fairs in Norfolk and Suffolk." The 

 two churches are described as "remarkably neat." The author 

 then proceeds : " Had a beautiful view of an artificial waterfoU 

 just in front of a bridge originally built by Devorgilla. It con- 

 sists of nine arches." Pennant's brief notice of the town concludes 

 with the mention of " a fine circumambient prospect of the 

 charming windings of the Xith towards the sea, the town of Dum- 

 fries, Terregles, a house of the Maxwells, and a rich vale towards 

 the north " (probably from the Corbelly Hill). 



Robert Heron, described as a miscellaneous writer — I supjjose 

 what used to be known as a bookseller's hack — made a journey 

 through the western counties of Scotland in the autumn of 1792, 

 the second year of Burns's residence in Dumfries. He describes 

 the environs of the town as being in a high state of cultivation, 

 with gentlemen's seats scattered around it as around Edinburgh 

 and Glasgow. Since the beginning of that century, he says, it 

 had risen from a state of considerable depression to considerable 

 wealth and population, corresponding to the improvement of the 

 surrounding country. The greater part of the High Street and of 

 the older parts of the town would then be much as they are now, 

 barring the ornate shop-fronts and the plate glass ; but the great 

 towns not having yet risen to opulence, the streets would look 

 handsome, as he describes them, by comparison. He praises the 

 beautiful and advantageous situation of the town, says the streets 

 are well lighted, but, unlike Dr Pococke thirty years before, thinks 



