Transactions. 55 
assessment continued voluntary, much kindness was shown by the 
farmers and wealthier classes to the poor. By degrees the 
assessment increased, until in 1845 it amounted to £83, which, 
added to the church collections, brought it up to £104. Some 
years after this, owing to the refusal of one or two individuals to 
pay their voluntary proportions, recourse was had to the adoption 
of the Act sanctioning the imposition of a legal assessment 
divided equally between proprietors and tenants. What that 
means we all know ; but how great the difference between cost 
and management of the old system and the modern few under- 
stand. The number of poor in the parish is diminished by a half, 
but the expense is increased three or fourfold. It stands now 
in 1894 at £300. Doubtless, the poor are better cared for, and 
the management is more efficient. But the Kirk-Session, or the 
heritors and Kirk-Session jointly, did the work kindly, impartially, 
and with no expense to the parish. 
10th January, 1895. 
Mr James Barsour in the Chair. 
New Members.—The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry and 
Lord Herries. = 
Donation.—Mr Bridges, slater, presented through Mr Jd. 
Barbour, a testoon of Queen Mary. 
Exhibits—Mr Barbour exhibited documents signed by 
James VI., by James, Lord Torthorwald, and others, and a 
charter granted by Peter Howatt, Abbot of Crossraguel, to 
George Grahame, of the lands called the Hollow Close and Brig- 
holme in Annan, 1621. 
COMMUNICATIONS. 
1. Birrens and Birrenswark. 
By James Macponatp, LL.D., F.S.A. Scor. 
For more than a century and a half certain earthworks at 
Birrens, together with others at Birrenswark of a somewhat 
different character, have been regarded as the most remarkable 
examples of Roman camp engineering to be now seen in North 
Britain—Ardoch, in Perthshire, alone excepted. These Dumfries- 
shire camps are generally looked upon as having had a close 
