208 Moffat and Upper Annandale. 



sales held on the September Fair day, usually known as the 

 " Tup Fair " till the amalgamation of the Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Societies in the year 1872, when Mr Hope- 

 Johnstone again met their wishes by giving them the use of 

 one of the Vicarland holms, the lessee of which is bound by 

 his lease to allow the Societies the use of the field for ten days 

 every year. So that the Moffat folks have still the use of a 

 show field as the result of the division of the Common in 1772. 

 I have already mentioned that the Curator complained 

 greatly about the inhabitants of Upper Annandale cutting 

 wood, etc., without leave. The trouble did not abate, and the 

 Earl laid part of the blame on the fact that there was no 

 resident factor in this district. There were two factors on 

 the estate, one of whom, Mr Blair, resided at Annan, and 

 looked after the estates in Lower Annandale, and the other, 

 Mr Hoggan, who factored the Upper portion, resided at 

 Hillside in Dryfe, whose " absence and distance upon many 

 emergencies occasioned great inconvenience, and there was 

 great advantage taken of it, especially by the inhabitants of 

 the town of Moffat, who are constantly upon the catch in 

 everything, and require a very constant and watchful eye 

 kept over them to prevent abuses, encroachments, and dis- 

 orders of many kinds. Besides that, in his absence, which 

 naturally from his growing years must be more and more 

 frequent, there was nobody to administer justice, grant war- 

 rants, or to keep the least authority of any kind, which is as 

 necessary there as in most places whatever."- Afterwards 

 Mr Hoggan was trasferred to the Lower division factorship, 

 and Mr Storey, a writer in Dumfries, was appointed to the 

 Upper division, to reside at Moffat. His salary was fixed at 

 ;£aoo. Sir Robert Laurie of Maxwelton and Richard 

 Lowthian, Esq. of Mayfield, were the cautioners. The house 

 Mr Storey lived in when resident here was the one in High 

 Street occupied by the late Dr Munro, and now possessed by 

 Dr Park. Before Mr Storey's time the house belonged to 

 and had been partly built by Mr Boe, schoolmaster, and was 

 possessed by his widow during her life at 100 merks yearly, 

 " but she having lived to a very great age, and being very 

 poor, not only fell in arrears with the rent, but left the house 



