Topography of Dumfries. 1'J9 



16). There is ample evidence that in the 16th century the only 

 approaches to Dumfries of military value were at Bankend and 

 Locharbriggs. Wharton, the Warden, in 1545, stated that "to go 

 to Drunefreys . . . the countrey is so stronge of nature, and 

 the passages thither so straight and narrowe, that he thinketh yt 

 over harde and dangerous to be attempted with a Warden's roode " 

 (State Papers, Henry VIII., v., pt. iv., 545). He further describes 

 the bank and ford at Hankend — " thorowe whiche mose is maid a 

 way with earthe, whereupon ther may pase foure men in renk and 

 not above, and within fyve howres no gret nombre of folkes may 

 cutt the same earthe and dam the passaige ; and if that may be 

 dammyd then the powre [army] must be carried 8th mylles about " 

 (State Papers, Henry VIII., v., pt. iv., p. 554). The English 

 official in his report (1563-1566) wrote: — "Ye shall understande 

 there be tuo wayes from Carlele to Drumfreis ; thone by Annand, 

 Cokpule, and the Bankende, called xxiiij'to myles good ; and thother 

 by Lowghtmaben and Lowchare brigh forsaide, being that way xxvj 

 myles, bothe strait passages and syndrie revares to pass over, yf 

 you have not Annande and Annerdale upoun thone syde " (Arm- 

 strong's Liddesdale, app., p. ex.). The Bridge at Bankend was 

 first built in 1617 to facilitate the progress of James VI. in his 

 return to England (Privy Council Keg., xi., 77-9). It was rebuilt 

 in 1717-19 (Dumfries Town Council Minutes, October 30th, 1717, 

 et seq.). In 1723-4 a road " from Hannay's Thorn (now Noblehill) 

 to the syde of the lake of Lochar in the place where the bridge 

 went over'' was built, under the supervision of one of Marl- 

 borough's campaigners, Abel Lowrance, and partially with money 

 obtained by the town from the Crown under an ultirmis Juvres of 

 the property left by a tobacco merchanj;, Percie or Pirrie, of New 

 England, who had died many years before. The road was raised 

 above the moss and trenched on either side — hence the name, The 

 Trench. Of the bridge that "went over" Lochar we have no 

 information. The Lockerbie Road was built " on the credit of the 

 toll " shortly before 1791 (Dr Burnside's MS. Account of Dumfries), 

 and the Edinburgh Road by the Duke of Queensberry and some 

 private subscribers circa 1770 (op. cit. and Pennant's Tour in 

 ScdtlaiuL 1770, 4th ed., ii., p. 95). 



l"! The Gill loch, much attenuated, was drained and sold by the 

 burgh for £130 in July, 1812. 



15 The etymology of the name Ix)reburn (which also appears as 

 the motto of Dumfries in the form of " A Loreburn ") is still un- 

 solved. Its earliest form is Lordeburn, but it is, even at early 

 dates, spelt Loreburn. There is (or was in 1747) a jjlace in Kirk- 

 connel Parish (Nithsdalo) that bore the same name, Lordburn 

 (Kirkconncl Reg. of Baptisms, 16th January, 1747). The common 

 derivation, the Lower Burn, is not acceptable. Topographicallj', it 

 does not conform to such a description, and the Scot would have 

 called a burn that did so the nether or laigh burn. One finds in 



