12 Transactions. 
and make it appear that such unwelcome parishioners were 
plentiful enough. Even this is exclusive of one of which nothing 
is known, but whose memory is only kept green by the name of 
the old Castle of Wreaths, which is said to be derived from the 
word “wraith” or apparition. The ghost itself seems to have 
vanished, and it probably disappeared with the destruction of the 
dense forest which is said to have surrounded the old castle. 
Taking the haunts of the ghosts in the order of a journey from 
Dumfries, the first is that which is said to have been frequented 
by a lady in white. This is on the main road shortly after 
entering the parish and close to a plantation of trees. Here in 
the shade of the trees, and with no sound near save the rushing 
of a neighbouring stream, this lady is said to have alarmed the 
passers-by. No one can tell me anything more about this ghost, 
and it is probable that even its reputed existence would have 
been forgotten had it not been that the belief in this supernatural 
being was turned to account in an ingenious way. A young 
woman living at a neighbouring farm was in the habit of meeting 
her sweetheart at a part of the road near the haunted spot, and 
in order to secure herself from annoyance was wont to wear a 
white sheet when going to the trysting place. ‘Tradition says 
that this love affair was none the less prosperous from the 
apparent want of reverence for the supernatural, but that the 
lovers were eventually joined in the bonds of matrimony. 
The next ghost we hear of with more detail, and the story is a 
tragic one with an ending in sharp contrast to that of the one 
just told. It is said to have haunted what is known as the 
“Three Cross Roads,” near Arbigland, a lonely spot, where, on 
a wild night, the dread feeling which was in these days felt in 
the deep darkness caused by the surrounding trees must have 
been intensified by the sound of the wind through their branches, 
and the roar of the waves of the boisterous Solway. The ghost 
was generally supposed to be that of a young man, and the tale 
is a romantic one, which, in the hands of an accomplished novelist, 
would form a thrilling narrative. As is pretty well known, 
Arbigland at one time belonged to a family of the name of Craik. 
Its then representative had a daughter who, it is said, had 
become attached to a young man named Dunn, who was in her 
father’s employment as a groom or horse-breaker. One day a 
shot was heard, and soon after the lifeless body of Dunn was 
found near where the ghost was said afterwards to appear. In 
