pennant’s SECOND TOUR IN SCOTLAND. 215

of an inch, carry it out of the reach of the tide, and lay it in round compad heaps, toprevent the fait from being walhed away by the rains : they then make a pit eight feetlong and three broad, and the fame depth, and plaifter the infide with clay, that it mayhold water; at the bottom they place a layer of peat and turf, and fill the pit with thecollected fand ; after that they pour water on it: this filters through the fand, and car-ries the fait with it into a leffer pit, made at the end of the great one: this they boil ii^imall lead pans, and procure a coarfe brown fait, very fit for the purpofes of faltingmeat or filh. James VI. , in a vifit he made to thefe parts, after his acceflion to thecrown of England, took notice of this operation, and for their induftry exempted the’’poor fait makers of Ruthwell from all duty on this commodity; which till the union,was in all the Scotch ads relating to the fait duties, excepted.

In this parifh was lately difcovered a lingular road through a morafs, made of wood,confifting of fpiit oak planks, eight feet long, faftened down by long pins or flakes,driven through the boards into the earth. It was found out by digging of peat, and atthat time lay fix feet beneath the furface. It pointed towards the fea, and in old timeswas the road to it; but no tradition remains of the place it came from.

Return through Annan, and after a ride over a naked trad, reach Springkeld, thefeat of Sir William Maxwell: near the houfe is the fite of B«ll-caftle, where the Dukeof Albany, brother to James III. , and the Earl of Douglas, lodged the night before theirdefeat at Kirkonnel, a place almolt contiguous. This illuftrious pair had been exiledin England, and invaded their own country on a plundering fcheme, in a manner un-worthy of them. Albany efcaped j Douglas was taken,, and finifhed his life in the con-vent of Lindores *.

In the burying-ground of Kirkonnel is the grave of the fair Ellen Irvine, and that ofher lover: file was daughter of the houfe of Kirkonnel, and was beloved by two gentle-men at the fame time: one vowed to facrifice the fuccefsful rival to his refentment, andwatched an opportunity while the happy pair were fitting on the banks of the Kirtle,.-thatwalhes thefe grounds. Ellen perceived the defperate lover on the oppofite fide, andfondly thinking to fave her favourite, interpofed ; and receiving the wound intendedfor her beloved, fell and expired in his arms. He inftantly revenged her death ; thenfled into Spain , and ferved for fome time againft the infidels : on his return he vifited^the grave of his unfortunate miftrefs, ftretched himfelf on it,, and expiring on the fpot,was interred by her fide. A fword and a crofs are engraven on the tomb-ftone, with-“ hie jacet Adam Fleming the only memorial of this unhappy gentleman, except an.ancient ballad of no great merit, which records the tragical event ft.

Excepting a glen near Springkeld, molt of this country is very naked. It is laid tohave been cleared of the woods by aft of parliament, in the time of James VI. , in orderto deftroy the retreat of the mofs-troopers, a pell this part of the country was infamousfor: in lad the whole of the borders then was, as Eindefay expreffes, no other thingbut . theft, reiff and flaughter. They were poffefted by a fet of potent clans, all of Saxondefeent; and, like true defeendants of Illnnael, their hands were againft every man,,and every man’s hand againft them. _ The Johnftons, of Lough-wood, in Annandale ;their rivals the Maxwells of Caerlavoroc, the Murrays of Cockpool, Glendonwyns ofGlendonwin, Carruthers of Holmain, Irvines of Bonlhaw, Jardins of Applegarth, andthe Elliots of Liddefdale, may be enumerated among the great families.

But befides thefe were a let of clans and furnames on the whole border, and on the

* Hume's Hift. of the Douglas’s, folio, p. 206.

t Which happened either the latter end of the reign of James V. , or the beginning of that of Mary.

debateable