The Dumfriesshire. 283 



THE DUMFRIESSHIRE.* 



The sheltered nook of Annandale is the iocale of the 

 Dumfriesshire Hunt. Lofty, sweeping, hills — the home 

 of the grouse and still more the breeding ground of 

 the black game — hem in this arena to the north, to the 

 east, and to the west; while the waters of the Sol way 

 Firth divide it from the county of Cumberland. 

 Directly Gretna Green is passed, you are on Dumfries- 

 shire hunting ground; and the Caledonian railway, 

 that had no existence in the days of runaway matches 

 and romance, will carry you through its length as it 

 follows the Annan upwards to the river's mountain 

 sources. A basin of level, well-tilled ground forms 

 the heart of the country (say, from above Lochmaben 

 and Lockerbie down to the sea), ribbed in by the high 

 grass ridge of the Corrie hills on the east, and by the 

 more cultivated slopes of Tinwald on the west. The 

 town of Dumfries is quite an outside point in the 

 latter direction ; and, indeed. The Annandale would, as 

 far as geographical position is concerned, have been a 

 more strictly appropriate name for the Hunt than The 

 Dumfriesshire. The county is certainly classified 



* Vide Stanford's " Hunting Map," Sheet 1. 



