CowniLT. Estate. 233 



The result of these re-sales was to reduce to ;£, 1 1,663 ^'^^ 

 price paid by Mr Johnston for the property of Cowhill Tower 

 as it now exists. To this price falls to be added in eslimatinj^ 

 the present value the larj^e sums spent on improvements, and 

 in particular the cost of the new Mansion House and Offices. 



?ktr Johnston died in 1901, and directed his Testamentary 

 Trustees to offer the property at the price of ;£^, 15,000 to each 

 member of his family in the order of seniority. It was ulti- 

 matelv purchased at that price in 1902 by the present pro- 

 prietor, who had married Mr Johnston's youngest daug'hter. 



The fishings included in the title have proved a fruitful 

 source of contention. They were embraced in the Grant from 

 Queen Mary in 1566 in precisely the same terms as those in 

 which they appear in the Crown Charter in favour of Mr 

 George Johnston issued in 1786, viz. : — " The fishings in the 

 Water of Nith between the Clouden mouth and the upper 

 boundary of Portrack," and, as in both Charters the annyal 

 feu duty stipulated for was the converted value of 32 salmon, 

 it is clear that a right of salmon fishing (not a right of fishing 

 for trout merely) was the subject of the Grant. Unfortu- 

 natelv, however, charters had likewise passed under the Great 

 Seal attaching a right of salmon fishing to the lands of 

 Portrack on the one side and to Milnhead lower down the 

 stream on the other, and thus arose litigations — first, with 

 John Maxwell of Terraughty, the then proprietor of Portrack, 

 in 1793, and subsequently in 1877 with the late General John- 

 ston of Carnsalloch, as then proprietor of Milnhead. As the 

 result of these law suits, the upper boundary of the Cowhill 

 Fishings is now defined by an imaginary line drawn from 

 the Old House of Cowhill to Foregirth Farm Dwelling-house, 

 and is marked by pillars erected on the river bank, while the 

 boundary with the Milnhead Fishings was fixed by the Court 

 in the law suit of 1877, subject to such adjustments as may 

 be rendered necessary from time to time by the shifting 

 character of the river bed. 



