Dumfries, 249 



been deserted after the pollution of its high altar with 

 the blood of the Comyns, and about two centuries 

 afterward the Maxwells built a splendid castle out of 

 its ruins and almost on its site ; but the fortune of war 

 and old Father Time levelled its massive walls in turn, 

 and now no vestige remains of either monastery or 

 castle. The castle of the Comyns, too, which occupied 

 a romantic site a little way south of the town, at a 

 place still called Castledykes, has left but slight memo- 

 rials of its olden grandeur. 



Among the noted men of the world whom Dumfries 

 numbers among her children are the Admirable Crichton, 

 Paul Jones, Allan Cunningham, Carlyle, Neilson of 

 the hot blast, Patterson, the founder of the Bank of 

 England, and Miller of the steamship. Still another, 

 a Scotch minister, was the founder of savings-banks. 

 While not forgetting to urge his flock to lay up treas- 

 ures in the next world, he did not fail to impress upon 

 them a like necessity of putting by a competence for 

 this one, sensible man ! How many ministers leave 

 behind them as powerful an agency for the improve- 

 ment of the masses as this Dumfries man, the Rev. Mr. 

 Duncan, has in savings-banks ? All the speculative 

 opinions about the other world which man can indulge 

 in are as nothing to the acquisition of those good, 

 sober, steady habits which render possible upon the 

 part of the wage-receiving class a good deposit in that 

 minister's savings-bank. The Rev. Mr. Duncan is my 



