CANNOBIE TO KENSINGTON. 407 



It was not the market day, and Annan had no in- 

 terest for us save what centred in its old church. 

 "When we had last ridden through its streets one-and- 

 thirty years before, men were still talking of Edward 

 Irving^s protest before the ministers and elders of 

 the Presbytery, and telling how in the twilight of that 

 March night he '' went forth from the church, where 

 he had been baptised and ordained — from the Church 

 of Scotland, the Sanctuary of his fathers — never 

 more to enter within walls dedicated to her worship, 

 till he entered in silent pomp to await the resurrec- 

 tion and advent of his Lord/^ 



Redkirk'!^ was not very far from Gretna, and a 

 few miles from it on the left of our route was the 

 scene seventy years ago of the great Solway Flow. 

 The moss rose and floated a mile or more over road 

 and field on the north side of the Esk, and accord- 

 ing to the Shepherd's Calendar it smothered in its 

 course " 2 men, 1 woman, 1,840 sheep, 9 cattle, 3 

 horses, 4 dogs, and 180 hares," and it took three 

 or four summers to put matters at all right again. 



* Mr. Syme has a tliree-liimdred-acre faiin at RedMi-k, about tvro miles 

 from Gretna Green. About a fourth, of it is bad moss, and the re.^t veiy ad- 

 hesive clay, and good free land. He has farmed for nine-and-i^^ enty years 

 on his owTi accoimt, and kept pure shorthorns nearly all that time. Forcing- 

 for shovrs has not been his object, and in fact he has hardly e>iiibired above 

 a dozen times, and always been first or second. When the Highland Society 

 came to Dumfries in 1845, he was second both with a cow and a heifer. His 

 herd has generally numbered from forty to fifty, and he has had a regular 

 trade for them with Messrs. Miller, Armstrong, and others, near Toronto, 

 Canada West, where they have been remarkably "Successful in taking prizes. 

 Some of his bulls have also gone to Austraha, and one to Singapore, to cross 

 with the native heifers. Mr. Stirling, M.P., has had a few of his blood, and 

 Rosy did good ser\dce at the last Keir roup. The Canadian market was vir- 

 tualiy closed to him three years ago, and this led to the sale of his herd by- 

 Messrs. Wetherall in May last. He, however, retains two old cows and two 

 heifer-calves as the germ of a new one. 



