Astronomical Notes for 191 3. lo7 



Comet (f) was discovered by M. Delavan, in the constella- 

 tion " Cetus " on December i8th. As tnis comet will not 

 pass perihelion until the end of October, 19 14, it is quite pos- 

 sible that it may develop into a brilliant spectacular object. 



Dumfries: Its Burghal Origin.* 



By George Neilson, LL.D. 



The difficulty about the generality of great subjects is 

 to strike the road that leads to the heart of them. Most 

 of us only manage to find paths that meander in and about 

 after a labyrinthine fashion which does not enable the 

 adequate ground plan to be sketched after we come out. 

 So has it been, so probably it will for a while still be, with 

 the remarkable historic phenomenon called feudalism — an 

 institution of foreign growth, but developed by home culti- 

 vation ; military in all essentials, yet the basis of the real 

 settled civil government of the country ; a foundation of 

 remorseless force, on which there rose a stately structure of 

 peace, commerce, and civic freedom. Truly feudalism as 

 we see it in Britain, still more as w-e see it in North Britain, 

 is a mass of paradoxes. It was the moral of Samson's 

 riddle over again. Out of the eater came forth meat, out 

 of the strong came forth sweetness — although in old Scot- 

 land, as in Judea, it was the carcase rather than the live 

 power which manifested the rich maturity of the scarcely 

 expected product. 



Based on an organisation for warlike purposes, feu- 

 dalism went out from the army into the land. The soldier's 

 pay was in his fief. The fief was connected on the one 

 hand closely — most closely — with the system of national or 

 dvnastic defence ; on the other it touched no less closely the 

 inland administration. It was a little solar system of which 

 the crown was the sun, but which had in every county its 

 planets, each with revolving satellites ; and sometimes the 

 units grouped themselves in constellations known only to 



*This contribution is reprinted by favmn- of the Editor, from 

 The Dumfries and Galloicay Standard, May 24th, 1809, rt .s-.y^. 



