58 Burghs of Annaxdale. 



will by contrast and suggestion shed some light on Scottish 

 burghal evolution. 



How was it that Annan, undoubtedly of consequence in 

 the days of William the Lion, did not become a royal burgh 

 before the 14th century, if indeed the attainment of that 

 status can even then be with certainty affirmed? Possibly 

 Ave shall discover at Annan distinctions helpful to explain how- 

 Lanark, Ayr, and Dumfries were burghs royal, Avhen Glas- 

 gow and Paisley, Prestwick and Irvine, Annan and Loch- 

 maben, " burghs " though they were, yet lacked the name 

 and privilege of being royal. 



The latest historian of Scotland informs his readers that 

 ■" while he was still only Earl, David granted Annandale to 

 de Bruce." Dr. Hume Brown had surely forgotten that the 

 charter still extant by David L was granted by him as Rex 

 Scotie. Its date was probably very soon after his accession 

 to the Scottish throne in April, 11 24, and its terms, as con- 

 taining the earliest record of Strath Annan as a province, 

 call for particular and textual examination. 



King David by it granted to Robert de Brus Strath 

 Annan (Estrahanent) and the whole land from the march of 

 Dunegal of Strath Nith (Stranit) as far as the march of 

 Randulph Meschin. " And I will and grant," adds the royal 

 giver, " that he shall hold and have that land and his castle 

 (suum casiellum) well and honourably with all its customs 

 (consuetudinibus suis) — viz., with all those customs which 

 Randulph Meschin ever had in Carlisle (Carduill) and in the 

 land of Cumberland on that day on which he ever had them 

 best and freest. ' '^ Exegesis of early twelfth century charter- 

 brevity has perils, which must, however, be encountered. 

 What are we to make of suum castellum? His castle, or 

 its castle' — which? Bruce's original castle, no doubt, was 



2 Acts Pari. Scot., i., 92. 



3 The words concerning castle (it seems to me, after a revised 

 scrutiny of the phrase) are best read to mean a license to castel- 

 late, a royal sanction to Brus's erecting a stronghold. The ambi- 

 guous adjectival pronoun meaning his or its is doubly applied, first 

 to castellum and next to consuetvdinihxis. Now it is obvious that 

 in the latter case the reference is to future customs, for Ranulph 



