Moffat and Upper AnnandALE. 199 



The term mortar in the above description refers to clay. 

 The old stone houses were built with clay for the mortar, and 

 some of them with a mixture of straw and clay, and not with 

 lime mortar. In subsequent feu charters, after the passing of 

 the Act, the houses were specified to be built all with stone 

 or brick and lime, and to cover the roofs with blue slates or 

 scallie. 



Among- the first houses to be built thus were Moffat House 

 and the King's Arms (now Annandale Arms). The Earl of 

 Hopetoun on his many visits to Moffat in connection with the 

 management of the estate found it very inconvenient to live in 

 lodgings, where there was no enclosed ground or park neces- 

 sary for a family. He therefore commissioned Mr John 

 Adam, architect, Edinburgh, to build the house now known as 

 Moffat House. The date of the charter was the i6th March, 

 1762, and within five years thereafter he had to " build a new 

 dwelling-house of at least fifty-five feet of length and twenty- 

 eight feet of breadth over the walls, with two pavilions, all 

 with stone or brick and lime, to co\er the roofs with blue slate 

 cr scallie, and which house and offices shall front to the street 

 and extend at least one hundred feet over all." There was 

 also a clause by which the Marquis and his foresaids, on 

 giving a year and a day's notice before any term of Whitsun- 

 day, could redeem the property by paying the value of the 

 house and " other meliorations," as the same should be esti- 

 mated and appreciated by mutually chosen arbiters, or, failing 

 which, by the Sheriff-Depute of Dumfriesshire. '*And the 

 said John Adam and all persons inhabiting and dwelling in 

 the houses or upon the lands now disposed to him are to be 

 subject and liable in thirlage to the said Marquis's mills, 

 and payment of multure, knaveship, and other duties to the 

 same, and all other mill services to the said mills according 

 to use and wont. And to answer all diets of Court of the 

 said Marquis, his Burgh of Barony of Moffat, when thereunto 

 lawfully summoned, and to obey all the lawful acts and orders 

 of the Baron or his bailies to be given therein." 



The feu charter to James Duncan for the King's Arms 

 was dated four days earlier than Moffat House, viz., 12th 

 March, 1762, and would be the first of the two built, as there 



