162 Transactions. 



Field Meeting. \st of June. 

 A visit was paid to Crocketford and Springholm. Auclien- 

 reoch Loch was circumambulated, manj'- botanical specimens being 

 collected. At a meeting, presided over by Mr George H. Robb, 

 Dr Clarke and Miss Tennant were elected members. Mr James 

 Barbour exhibited a copy of Innes's History of the Buchanites, 

 several leaves being in Innes's own handwriting, and also a copy of 

 the proceedings taken against the Buchanites by the Sheriff Court. 

 The party then drove along the old military road, round part of 

 Milton Loch, and arrived at the Hills Tower, Lochrutton, which 

 was inspected. 



Field Meeting. Q,t/i of July. (Described by Mr Wm. Dickie.) 



A visit was paid to "Whithorn, where Dr John Douglas and Mr 

 William Galloway acted as guides. The ruins of the Priory were 

 carefully examined, and then visits were paid to the Eoman Camp, 

 St. Ninian's Cave, and the ruins of St. Ninian's Kirk in the Isle of 

 Whithorn. Finally the ruins of the old Norman church of 

 Cruggleton were explored. At a meeting presided over by Major 

 Bowden, Dr Douglas and Mr Galloway of Whithorn, Mr George 

 Hamilton and Mr E. M'Conchie of Kirkcudbright, and Mr Alex. 

 Ferguson, solicitor, were elected members. 



It is the ruined Priory which invests Whithorn with such 

 strong attractions for the antiquary, and to it the visitors pro- 

 ceeded, admiring by the way the ample thoroughfare and the tidy 

 appearance of the long main street of the town. The existing 

 charter conferring on Whithorn burghal rank and privileges was 

 wranted by King James IV., the most assiduous of the Scottish 

 kin^s in his devotion to the shrine of St. Ninian, but it is under- 

 stood that this was only a renewal of an earlier charter emanating 

 from Robert the Bruce. The change of the commercial highway 

 from the sea to the railway has injuriously affected it, like many 

 other outlying towns, and has diminished its municipal revenue, of 

 which the mainstay used to be the dues charged at the port of Isle 

 of AVhithorn, three miles from the town. But it bears its adversity 

 placidly, and its appearance indicates a fair measure of prosperity 

 amono- the burgesses. The old Town Hall and Tolbooth is a plain 

 building, with square tower and extinguisher-shaped spire, sur- 

 mounted by a ship in full rig by way of vane. It is not of great 

 antiquity, having been built only about 1820 ; but it has already 



