218 FIELD MEETINGS. 
Passing now to the end of the Stewart dynasty in Dal- 
swinton we find that half of the barony was disponed 
in 1624 to one John Rome (pronounced Room in Shakepeare’s 
time and in the records spelt accordingly), and this part of 
the barony has always been distinguished to recent times as 
Dalswinton Rome. Rome was a merchant burgess of Dum- 
fries, and ‘“‘ Drave an Advantageous Trade of Droving.’’ 
Serious financial difficulties arose out of a settlement he made 
for the children of his second marriage with Elizabeth 
Maxwell, who was a sister of John Maxwell, variously known 
as of Tinwald, of Templand, of Shaws (Closeburn), and of 
I‘riars’ Carse. »The stone built in at the foot of the avenue 
E. M.—and the date—1626. It 
was expected that this would prove to be a marriage stone, 
bears their initials—I. R. 
but I have just come upon the date of the marriage contract, 
dated, Dumfries, 30th September, 1622, so four years 
earlier, and two years before he came into final possession 
of Dalswinton Rome. His charter 1s dated 3rd November, 
1624, and we may now conjecture that the date 1626 was 
set upon a new house, that which stood till a hundred years 
avo. The last occupant must have been Janet Miller, the 
beautiful Countess of Mar, five days a Countess, though in 
the only notice of her death which I have been able to find 
she is described as the Lady of the Right Hon. Lord Erskine. 
She died at Dalswinton on August 25th, 1825, just ninety- 
seven years ago. The meadow where she pastured her cows 
is still known as the Lady’s meadow. 
Rome appears to have made much the same mistake as 
Patrick Miller, settled sums upon younger children in excess 
of what the estate could carry. Rome died in 1637 and left 
a legal problem which outlasted some half-dozen proprietors 
and provided a plentiful crop of litigation till 1703, that is for 
sixty-six years. Hurrying over individuals who held brief 
possession of the titles we come to John Maxwell of Dalswin- 
ton, advocate, a shady character, of mysterious origin, who 
knew the inside of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. He and Sir 
John Dalzell of Glenae were married to sisters, Jonet and 
Agnes, daughters of James Nisbet of Restalrig. From all 
