FIELD MEETINGS. 201 
Maxwells of Gribton, who brought labourers from Ireland and 
made some of the richest land in the parish of Holywood out 
of the bleak stretches of heather and whin. This was about 
the middle of last century. Proprietors in Dunscore soon 
followed their example, and traces of the muir have now 
almost disappeared. Of the great wooded area that extended 
throughout this part of the county, names only indicate its 
existence. Besides Meiklewood there is Holywood, Bishop’s 
Forest in Irongray, and in Kirkmahoe The Forest. Of vast 
extent, it had disappeared by the middle of the 17th century, 
writers of the 18th century describing the land as bare and 
woodless, while replanting began about towards the close of 
that period. In Dunscore the farm of Rosefield, originally 
Corse and the adjacent Corsehill, were pointed out as indi- 
cating the presence, in pre-Reformation times, of a wayside 
cross. As there is a tradition, at least, that here also was a 
chapel, it was the opinion of one of the members that its ruins 
were the Preaching Walls, from which Blackadder spoke 
before the famous communion. The lands, too, which gave 
one of the greatest friends of Robert Burns his territorial 
designation—Glenriddeil—were pointed out. 
In Glencairn a brief halt was made at Shancastle or 
Maxwelton Mote, conveniently situated by the roadside, and, 
defying water underfoot as well as overhead, a rapid examina- 
tion of this example of defensive structure introduced by the 
Normans was made. Measuring on the top some 7o feet by 
60, one could well imagine the steep smooth sides rising from 
their ditches and crowned by a palisade of stout timber, 
forming a very sufficient defence for the wooden tower that 
sheltered the Norman overlord against the crude weapons of 
the day. Gaup’s Mill, too, at the ford over the river, with its 
tradition that there Bruce declared he’d ‘‘ Kep the Gaup,”’ 
was noted with interest. And so they ran rapidly through 
Moniaive by the Castlefern Water, past Woodlea, Auchen- 
cheyne and Craigmuie, to the wide sheep lands, and over the 
watershed to the Blackmark Burn, then across the Lochinvar 
Burn, and so down to the valley of the Ken and St. John’s 
Clachan of Dalry. 
