242 TRANSACTIONS. 
convert it into a place of worship or use its stones to build one. 
Though its Castle was the main defence of Annan in time of war, 
the church, which stood near to it, was also a place of strength, 
the tower being fortified. The destruction of “ Annan Steeple” 
was the chief object of an English invasion in September, 1547. 
At the head of 2500 men, “whereof 500 were Scotsmen that 
served the King,” Lord Wharton advanced to the attack, planting 
his siege train on the slope known as Battery Brae. The defenders 
were ably commanded by an officer named Lyon and by the 
Master of Maxwell, and the Lairds of Johnston and Cockpool. 
They did not exceed a hundred in number, yet for eight hours the 
unequal struggle was maintained, the heroic men of Annan 
hurling defiance at the foe— 
‘¢ Till forty of the poor hundred were slain, 
And half of the rest of them maimed for life !” 
The battered church after its capture was completely destroyed, 
being blown up with gunpowder. “This done,” writes the old 
historian, ‘the English sacked and burnt the town, and left not 
a stone standing, for it had ever been a right noisome neighbour to 
England. The Englishmen had conceived such a spite to it that 
if they saw but a piece of timber remaining unburnt they would 
cut the same in pieces.” 
Near to the brae from which on that far-off September morn- 
ing the invaders’ guns poured their deadly discharge stands “The 
Moat,” a long old-fashioned house, guarded by spreading elms and 
beeches. In the midst of the grounds, which stretch down to the 
holm, is a small tree-crowned height—one of the artificial 
eminences so common in Annandale. The “Moat Hill” is 
generally supposed to have been raised in early times as a spot on 
which to assemble for the administration of justice, but its origin 
is really wrapt in mystery. The Moat fora few months in 1808 
was the residence of the Rev. James Grahame, author of “The 
Sabbath,” who married an Annan lady, a daughter of Richard 
Grahame, town clerk. In his charming retreat the poet wrote 
“The British Georgics,” gaining fresh inspiration from the old- 
world garden and the little wildernesses of tree and shrub. Only 
a Virgil can treat satisfactorily such a subject as “‘ Husbandry,” 
but Grahame’s work has merit, and in many of the lines the 
influence of local scenery can be traced. 
Proceeding, in his description of Annan, to the Town Hall, a 
handsome modern erection, Mr Miller gave some of the results of 
dts 
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