206 Moffat and Upper Annandale. 



pound stg-. of rent." (14) Margt. Tod's Moat, containing 

 5f acres, with one soum on the Common, set to John Moffat, 

 indweller in Moffat, Nicol's son, at one pound stg. of rent. 

 Meg Tod's moat, which is the field east of the Ballplay Road 

 at Vicarlands, is not now part of the Annandale estate. 

 Some time after the division of the Common in 1772, when 

 the occupiers of all these town lots lost their right of pasturage 

 on the Common, which was* of considerable value to them — a 

 soum representing the right to pasture one cow or five sheep 

 — the Cow Gang was made a common pasture ground for 

 the inhabitants who cared to put one or more cows to graze 

 on it, for which privilege they paid the estate two pounds per 

 cow for the season, extending from the 12th of May to 

 November. The graziers also maintained a herd, who was 

 generally a person unfit for ordinary work, to drive the cows 

 back and forwards to the pastures and look after them when 

 there, for which he was paid two shillings per cow for the 

 season, the amount to be made up to five pounds if the number 

 of cows on the ground did not make up that sum. The Cow 

 Gang was continued as such down to some time in the 70's, 

 when it was added to the Holmfields, and is now part of the 

 Nursery farm. But before this time — greatly owing to the 

 restrictions of the Burgh Police Act, 1862 — the keeping of 

 cows within the burgh by ordinary householders became more 

 difficult, and the number of cows dwindled to such a small 

 number that they were removed altogether to a single field 

 on the west side of Annan Water at the Bridge, Dumfries 

 road, which is now also given up. Latterly the herd's 

 remuneration was 2s 6d per month per cow, and the charge 

 for grazing in the Bridge-end field raised to ;^3 los per cow. 



The Common of Moffat, which extended from its march 

 with Granton at the end of Archbank Moor down to the 

 head of the town (at St. Mary's Church), contained loii 

 acres, and was valued at ;^223 8s 6d, and was proportioned 

 among the parties having interest as under : — 



