244 Transactions. 



these words, " and the said John is ordained to be imprisoned if he 

 fail to produce her." Amongst other offences with suitable penalties 

 attached were, " saying that the magistrates did not give true 

 judgment," " building of peat stacks upon the High Town Street," 

 " raising and pulling up of march stones," and " cutting and carry- 

 ing away of wood " from plantations in the neighbourhood. 

 Persons were frequently fined for " irregular marriage," and on 

 one occasion a man was prosecuted for " resetting the Egyptians 

 and also eating and di'inking with them " — in other words, for 

 sheltering gypsy outlaws and fraternising with them. 



Passing from the picture of life in the burgh two centuries 

 ago as reflected in the Council records, Mr Miller alluded to the 

 connection of Carlyle with Annan, mentioning that the Old 

 Academy, to which he was taken by his father on that " red 

 sunny AVhitsuntide morning " in 1806, has long been the residence 

 of Mr Batty, who for many years was Chief Magistrate of the 

 burgh. The house is large and dark — one of the buildings 

 which Dorothy Wordsworth had in her observant eye when she 

 penned her singularly graphic description of Annan. Carlyle's 

 " doleful and hateful school life " lasted till 1810, when he was 

 sent to Edinburgh University. Four years later he returned to 

 Annan, having obtained by competition the post of teacher of 

 mathematics in the Academy. He remained in the town till 

 1816, boarding with Mr Glen, the burgher minister, in the house 

 in Ednam Street now occupied as the United Presbyterian manse. 



With the name of Carlyle will always be associated that of 

 Edward Irving, who was born in 1792, in a house in Butts Street. 

 Gavin Irving, the father of the preacher, was a tanner, carrying on 

 his trade in a yard near to his dwelling-house. He held the office 

 of bailie when the election celebrated in Burns's " There were five 

 carlins in the south " took place. His wife, Mary Lowther, was a 

 native of the parish of Dornock, where her father owned a piece 

 of land. She was a handsome woman, with brilliant black eyes, 

 and her energy and force of character won the admiration of all 

 who came in contact with her. Irving received his education at 

 Annan Academy, ot which the talented Dalgliesh was head master. 

 In a few sentences the lecturer outlined Irving's meteoric career, 

 and remarked that not a few of his townsmen would still tell with 

 strange awe how they witnessed in their youth his solemn deposi- 

 tion in Annan Parish Church and listened to the cry of anguish 

 which burst from his lips when his opinions were condemned. 



