Recent

For a short period in the second month of the Great War, the attention of the people of Dumfries and Galloway was focused on the seemingly tragic plight of the family of Andrew Hume, a local music teacher. In a journalistic scoop the Dumfries Standard reported that Hume’s 23-year-old daughter Grace, a nurse with the Red Cross in Belgium, had been brutally butchered by advancing German troops. It appeared to be one episode among many proving the depravity of Britain’s enemy. But granted that, less than three years earlier, Hume had lost his son Jack on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the liner Titanic, it also seemed that lightning had for once struck twice in the same place. In practice, the story proved to be something of a nine-day wonder, quickly exposed as a cruel fabrication. Yet, in highlighting the broader issue of enemy atrocities and wartime propaganda, the Hume case is illustrative of key historical themes whose importance transcends even the First World War itself.

Dumfries and Galloway was caught up in the struggle for political reform that became focused on the ‘People’s Charter’ in the 1830s and 1840s. The most significant mobilisation of working people in the nineteenth century attracted skilled craftsmen whose earnings and status were being diminished by industrial change. They saw it not simply as a campaign for political rights, but as a means of transforming social as well as economic relationships largely through their own combined efforts. Although none of the Dumfries leaders came to national prominence, the town was a regular venue for Chartist lecturers. Almost all commented that they found a stable and committed group of activists there, who established a very successful reading room and co-operative society and who continued the struggle for the cause despite internal divisions and external hostility.

The existence of corrupt ‘rotten boroughs’ in England is a well-documented phenomenon before the ‘Great’ Reform Act of 1832. Similarly, many Scottish constituencies possessed characteristics which made them particularly closed, even by the limited standards of the pre-Reform political system. The Wigtown District of Burghs, (hereafter the Wigtown Burghs), which was almost entirely controlled by a number of prominent local families, was one of these. By using its politics after 1832 as a case-study, it is possible to question how far the Scottish Reform Act went in creating a more open and democratic political culture. Moreover, it raises the possibility that the political culture of non-contiguous Burgh Districts, which were unique to Scotland and Wales, possessed characteristics which set them apart from other types of constituency.
 

John Rutherford (1842–1925) was a local photographic pioneer and well worthy of study. Three published papers will result in a fairly comprehensive review of his recording of scenes of South-West Scotland at the end of the Victorian period. The current paper, which is the third and final one, features his photographs of Dumfries. The first paper in the series presented biographical information and a study of the excavations at Birrens in the 1890s, both aspects of Annandale. The second paper dealt with his photographs of Nithsdale from north to south. Each paper has quotations from writings largely contemporaneous with Rutherford’s photographic work.

A Building Record of the Fish House at Tongland was made by the authors in November 2013, prior to the re-development of the building. This revealed the nature of the midnineteenth century structure and reflected its use in relation to the seasonal salmon fishery at the nearby Doachs of Tongland on the River Dee. There is also anecdotal evidence for its operation, which included the dispatch of salmon to distant markets. The fishery closed in the 1930s with the development of the Galloway Hydro-Electric Scheme, but a range of documentary evidence indicates that this was a valuable (and sometimes controversial) fishery, operated as an economic unit from 1642 and probably much earlier. Quite possibly the canons of nearby Tongland Abbey exploited this natural resource from the early thirteenth century, although there is no surviving physical or documentary evidence for this.
 

Probably no short period in modern history has been as intensively studied as the month of July 1914 — or more precisely, the five weeks between the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo on 28 June and the British declaration of war on Germany on 4 August. Within the vast corpus of resulting literature the reporting of the so-called war crisis in the British press remains, nonetheless, a relatively neglected aspect. Coverage of events in the provincial press has been even less well examined. At one level this is not surprising. The focus of analysis has inevitably been an attempt to understand precisely what was going on within the corridors of power — what were the motives behind key developments such as the Austrian ultimatum, the German ‘blank cheque’ and the Russian mobilization; which countries were prepared or even keen to accept the transition from diplomacy to war and on what scale; and which countries were genuinely striving for a peaceful resolution. If contemporary political and military leaders, and their governments and cabinets, with all the resources of diplomatic representation and clandestine intelligence operations at their disposal, could not settle these questions with any certainty or accuracy, then it would be unrealistic to turn to the press, and particularly provincial newspapers, for answers. Only painstaking research on the secret diplomatic and political files of the various powers has enabled historians to base their conclusions on hard evidence. Many crucial documents remained concealed from such scrutiny for several decades after the end of the Great War. Even after a hundred years, with little more governmental documentation likely to come to light, historians still find it difficult to reach a consensus on the basis of the vast quantity of archival material now available to them. Explaining what actually happened is, then, unlikely to be the main historical value of the contemporary provincial press. But in their record and interpretation of the events of that fateful summer a century ago, and of reactions to the fast changing picture as it emerged, newspapers are themselves part of the wider history of the time and worthy of note. What follows is an analysis of the coverage of the 1914 crisis by two local newspapers with sharply differing political stances, the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and Advertiser and the Dumfries and Galloway Courier and Herald. 

John Rutherford (1842–1925) was a photographic pioneer and well worthy of study: so much so that three papers, in all, over three years will gradually build up a picture of his activities, achievements and, especially, his recording of scenes in South-West Scotland at the end of the Victorian period. The current paper features his photographs of Nithsdale. The first paper in the series presented biographical information and a study of the excavations at Birrens in the 1890s, both being aspects of Annandale.2 The third and final paper will concentrate on his scenes of Dumfries itself .

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society’s lending library was already established by 1864. In 1904, when the Ewart Public Library opened, books of local importance were transferred to the Ewart Library and formed the core of the ‘Local Collection’. Over the years many of the remaining books have been dispersed either by donation or sale. In 2011, the Council of the Society formed a committee2 to assess the residue of the Society’s library and to organise its disposal, also to collate and catalogue the archive collection relating to the Society.3 This article recounts the history of the Society’s library and records the actions taken by this committee.

Duchess Bridge near Langholm is one of Scotland’s earliest surviving cast-iron bridges. It spans the River Esk within the policies of the one-time Buccleuch mansion of Langholm Lodge in Dumfries and Galloway, and it was cast and erected in 1813. This note reproduces some contemporary documentation concerning the bridge and something of the narrative that caused it to be.

This essay sets out to trace the development of Sanquhar from the earliest times to the close of the nineteenth century, with a glance at its more recent expansion, a section on its outlying dependency of Crawick and a look at the roads which may have been the main reason for the town’s existence. Conclusions are drawn from maps, observation on the ground, the historical record — mainly the comprehensive 1891 work of local historian James Brown — and information from local residents.

At the foot of the kirkyard at Mouswald, sloping down towards the Solway Firth, lie the mortal remains of Robert Threshie Reid, first and last Earl Loreburn. The simple stone cross marking his grave, lies broken on the ground, its condition a telling commentary on the evaporation of the historical reputation of one who served for more than six years as a leading and much respected member of Britain’s pre-First World War Liberal government. That distinguished administration, formed by premier Henry CampbellBannerman in December 1905, contained three future Prime Ministers – H.H. Asquith, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill – as well as such luminaries as Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary at the start of the war, and Richard Burdon Haldane, perhaps the most accomplished War Minister of the twentieth century. But Reid’s appointment to the Lord Chancellorship was seen at the time as a step of considerable importance. Indeed, he was the first prospective minister to be approached by Campbell-Bannerman as the latter set about constructing his cabinet.

In a recent paper by the second author, the ‘Old Edinburgh Road’ was indicated as following a route between Barscobe and Balmaclellan, following the present access road from Barscobe Castle to the present A712 and thence on to Balmaclellan. Since then, an assessment by the first author calls for this section to be revised. Further research makes it clear that this should be replaced by a more direct and anciently established route between the two places.

In its editorial on 14 December 1963 the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and Advertiser declared, ‘The fact must be faced, Liberalism in Dumfriesshire is on its deathbed and nothing short of a miracle will revive it.’ The evidence for such a statement was strong. In the by-election occasioned by the elevation to the peerage of the sitting member, Niall Macpherson, and whose result had just been declared, the Liberal party, fielding a candidate in the constituency for the first time since the General Election of 1945, had secured a derisory 4,491 votes and forfeited its deposit. This figure, suggested the Standard, was ‘amazingly small’. ‘No juggling of the figures can produce a single crumb of comfort for the Liberals.’ The party’s candidate, Charles Abernethy, and his supporters had ‘put everything they had into the campaign, but however strong Liberalism in Dumfriesshire may have been in the past the by-election figures show that the new generation of voters are thinking along different lines’. A week later, following the publication of two critical letters in its correspondence columns, the newspaper felt it necessary to defend itself against the charge that it had itself contributed to the Liberal party’s predicament because ‘it did not throw its whole weight behind the Party, as in the old days’. A newspaper’s primary function, the Standard argued, is ‘to give a fair and unbiased account of the news, particularly in the controversial field of politics’. If, then, the Dumfriesshire Liberals were looking for a scapegoat for the result of the poll, ‘they must look elsewhere. We have no intention of accepting the role.’

For a period of nearly one hundred years the senior customs officers at the port of Dumfries believed that the establishment of a king’s boat at Carsethorn was the best means of stopping smuggling up the Solway Firth. These king’s boats were comparatively small when compared with the revenue cutters stationed round the Scottish coasts – the nearest of these was at Whithorn. They were essentially open boats with four, six or eight sets of oars and a sail. They were manned by a commander with a crew of men, who had been bred to the sea. The main source of information about the king’s boats is the copy books of letters from the Board of Customs in Edinburgh to the collector and comptroller at Dumfries and the local officers’ letters to the Board and to their own staff. This paper describes the relationship between the collectors and the commanders of the king’s boat, during the period 1759 to 1799, for which there is the most detailed information.

Readers of the Transactions issue LXXXIV 2010 will recall the story of Rosa Gigantea ‘Sir George Watt’, which ended on a note of hope that the rose might be grown successfully in Scotland. There was great despair at the lack of success of the various packages which had been sent from India at considerable cost by the ever-hopeful Girija Viraraghavan and her husband, Viru. In Scotland, Richard Baines at Logan Botanic Garden in the West of Dumfries and Galloway remained just as optimistic and willing to keep trying to achieve success. After two failed attempts Morag Williams perhaps planted the seed of an idea in Girija’s mind, which lay dormant because there did not seem to any possibility of its happening. She said that the main reason for the lack of success seemed to be the time taken by these tender cuttings to reach their destination in Scotland and receive attention. If only someone travelling from India to the UK could bring them by air it would improve the chances of success. Better still, if a rooted plant, instead of cuttings, could arrive by this means there would be greater hope of a successful outcome. Even so, such a move would provide another hurdle to overcome: a plant would require certification to travel. There follows in Girija’s own words the second instalment of the journeying of the Rosa Gigantea ‘Sir George Watt’ from India to Scotland, which first appeared in January 2011 in The Indian Rose Annual XXVII 2011. Girija has kindly given consent for publication in the Transactions.

In the internet catalogue of the National Archives of Scotland appeared RHP 35867, entitled; ‘A Gradient Diagram of alterations to the military road from Path Brae’, with comments and explanation, dated 1786 and with the signature William Mure. The original document has the accession number STEWM:7405 in the Stewartry Museum in Kirkcudbright, where the curator, Dr David Devereux, made it available for inspection and offered useful local knowledge.

This article explores the vituperative controversy which erupted in the mid 19th century over whether the Wigtown Martyrs were drowned. As the available evidence is neither easily accessible nor widely known, it is explained and evaluated. The conclusion is that they were drowned but there remain several mysteries including what happened to a reprieve from the Privy Council. Some historians have therefore been unable to agree that the drownings took place.

The ‘Old Edinburgh Road’ marked on Ordnance Survey maps of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright forms part of a route of great antiquity. A brief summary of its history before the turnpike era was given by the writer in a previous paper.2 The following notes are intended as an amplification of this and its extensions into Dumfriesshire and Wigtownshire, based on observations made in the intervening forty years.

The Gordons of Earlstoun are interesting in that they, probably more than any other family in Galloway, suffered the most extreme vicissitudes of fortune. Senior cadet branch of the Gordons of Lochinvar (later Viscounts Kenmure), they built up such a large landholding that by the mid-1600s they had become one of the most powerful and influential families in Kirkcudbrightshire, and later they acquired a baronetcy. Yet within a century the family were so reduced that they were compelled to dispose of their estates, and for the next seventy-five years they remained landless. However, in the mid-eighteenth century a younger son emigrated to Jamaica where he became involved in the lucrative sugar trade, and established the foundations for a revival in the family’s fortunes. Building on this, and inheriting the baronetcy, his son was adjudged heir of entail to an estate near Borgue. Consequently the family regained much of its former eminence

The Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser of 14th October 2009 published an article by retired Langholm General Practitioner, Tom Kennedy, which began: ‘A NEW rose with Langholm connections has been cultivated in India and it is hoped that it may one day be planted in the Rosevale Street garden in the future.’ (More of this garden in Langholm later.) He might have added that across Dumfries and Galloway and in Grampian there are other sites which would welcome the opportunity to plant this tender and beautiful rose because of associations with Sir George Watt and involvement in attempts at its propagation in Scotland. The following article appeared in The Indian Rose Annual, XXVI, 2010, the magazine of the Indian Rose Federation, founded in 1979. It appears by kind permission of Girija and Viru Viraraghavan, recognised as celebrated ‘Rosarians of the World’.

The killing of four Covenanters by Crown forces on Lochenkit Moor near present-day Crocketford in Kirkcudbrightshire in early 1685 was one of the most notorious events of the ‘Killing Times’. Today, a walled enclosure protects the site of their grave and an impressive obelisk nearby records the circumstances of their killing2. However, an account of the incident has been recently discovered in a manuscript book held in the Stewartry Museum in Kirkcudbright, which, if accurate, offers an alternative interpretation of the event.

Summary of a lecture delivered to the Society on 19th November 2004.
Originally a bare tract of crofts and a few trees, dominated by a Tower House, the environment at Culzean changed with the building of the mansion house by Robert Adam and the developme

A presentation which revealed how the Murray family developed their parks and pleasure grounds at Cally, Gatehouse of Fleet. Although the designed landscape is now largely hidden by forestry planting many historical features are still recognisable and hel

Lecture in Kirkcudbright Town Hall The speaker showed how records from some dozen English and Scottish archives had enabled a picture to be built of the lives of three generations of the Birtwhistle family, possibly the greatest drovers and graziers of th

The illustrated talk was a journey from about 1600 to the late 20th century, showing how communion vessels developed in the Church of Scotland. The earlier cups date from 1617 when the Scottish Parliament passed an act that communion should be dispensed

Obituary of Frank Stewart a Life Member of the Society - he contributed a numner of articles to the Transactions on the history of the New Abbey area.

Obituary of Duncan Adamson a former President of the Society - he contributed a significant number of articles to the Transactions on various aspects of the history of the Dumfries and Galloway area. He acted as historian to the Anne Hill Committee.

A review article

A review article

A short article describing the finding of a sock in a recess close to the chimney flue at Mull Cottage, Kirkmaiden. The sock was found to be stuffed with thistles and it is suggested that it may be of 18th century date and concealed to trap spitits: it is

Brief report of the exposure of traces of Kirkcudbright's town-wall in the garden ground at number 62 High Street. The evidence from the excavation supports other similar exposures within the burgh.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland was established by Royal Warrant in February 1908, entrusted with the task of making an inventory of the ancient and historical monuments and constructions connected with or illustra

This report has arisen from the production of a management plan for Cally designed landscape for the Gatehouse Development Initiative in 2007. That plan is a practical tool to inform management and maintenance of the landscape and interpretation and enjoy

This article explores the distinctive features of the Accounts for the shires of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown and the changes revealed in the lives of the people and their environments between the First and Second and between the Second and Third A

The old ruined church and graveyard at Kirkconnel Lea on the Springkell Estate near Eaglesfield (NGR: NY 250753) is best known for its association with ‘Fair Helen’ Irving or Bell and her betrothed Adam Fleming de Kirkpatrick. This connection dominates th

An archaeological excavation carried out by CFA Archaeology at the site of the new Lockerbie Academy identified four concentrations of archaeological features. These consisted of a Neolithic timber hall, a segmented ditched enclosure, an Anglian timber ha