OS1/10/41/2

Continued entries/extra info

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Parish of Mouswald -- Co. [County] Dumfries

[Continued from Page 1] Villages or hamlets vizt. Mouswald which has a population of 160, Woodside and Cleughbrae which have a joint population of 150. The Parish Church a handsome modern structure is in a central and convenient situation and placed as it is upon an elevation is a prominent object - visible from almost every point of the Parish. It has accommodation for 386 sitters. Patron the Marquis of Quensberry. Stipend and Glebe £240.15.0. There is only one Parish School which has but limited accommodation and is in indifferent repair. Salary attached £25.13.4 with £9.10.0 fees. There is also a Free Church and School on Mount Kedar which from their situation at Sn. [Southern] Parish Boundary also accommodate the adjoining Parish of Ruthwell. There is also on the Summit of this hill a handsome Monument to the memory of the late Dr. [Doctor] Duncan the first Minister of Free Church, a Man esteemed alike for his great learning, his beneficent public acts and [charitable] purposes.
Several Antiquities exist in this Parish, respecting which little authentic information can be procured, - the surmises of locals being little in conformity with history and seemingly at variance with the early character of this district. The remains of two Camps are yet visible one at Burronhill near the [centre] of Parish and another about ¾ mile N. E. E. [North East East] thereof. The former is allowed to be British; from the little remains yet existing it seems to have had a double fosse and to have been of [circular] formation. The second approaches to that of a square, is of such dimensions only to be occupied as an Outpost - called Castra aestiva or Summer encampment, and is [pronounced] by people of locality to be Roman. Such a supposition seems inconsistent with facts,- no Roman remains have ever been found in this locality, no Roman road has ever been traced in the district, the nearest Station or Roman Camp was on Wardlaw Carlaverock about 7 miles distant,- a dense forest and marsh intervening. If Roman its Construction could [only] be attributed to the period of Agricola's fourth campaign or his subjugation of the Selgovae, but Tacitus remarks that at that period Agricola was impeded in his march [to] the East of Lochar Water (the intervening space between Wardlaw and this Camp ) by a dense forest and extensive morass,- that it might have been Constructed during the undertaking of the Roman Road in adjoining Parish of Lochmaben seems also improbable as the entire district South was long previously conquered. These Camps from the above facts may more consistently be ascribed to a much later period. Another Camp is reputed to have existed on Pantath Hill the traces of which cannot now be [discerned] A Cairn - called Stryal or Tryal Cairn although now scarcely discoverable as a distinct feature from the surrounding ground is pointed out. Tradition affirms its having been the place where Malefactors heard their sentence pronounced. It was originally 288 feet in circumference. Another Cairn is spoken of called Deadmangill which has now entirely disappeared the name however is still applied to the Glen wherein it was situated. This Cairn is traditionally reported to have marked the spot where delinquents were executed. A Tumulus now called Elf Knowe where human bones have been found is reported to have existed near Bucklerhole, at N.wn. [North western] extremity of Parish Five Border Towers are said to have existed in this Parish, but Examiners have only been able to discover the vestiges of three respectively at Bucklerhole, Mouswald Mains and Raffles. [h--] all, they have been strong square buildings and extend nearly parallel. The centre one originally belonged to Sir Simon Carruthers and from vestiges still existing and its Name "Mouswald Place" was the strongest and most important in the district. The present proprietor has versus juro antiquairia dubbed his house as The Place of [the] PArish, thus depreciating in importance the once [frowning] and stubborn stronghold of a worthy ancestor of the noble family of Queensberry, by the application of "Tower "[Every] "Man thinks his own Geese- Swans". Little is known of the early ecclesiastical state of this Parish, - A Church dedicated to St Peter existed in close proximity to the well called St. Peter's well, - the waters of which no doubt furnished an excellent [quack] specific during Popish times, as the spring has never been known to freeze even during the hardest frosts nor does Wath Burn into which it flows ever freeze for a Considerable distance after their junction

Transcriber's notes

check line 4 (school fees) - transcribed as £9.10.0 rather than £9.10.11

some letters are lost in the fold - line 6 - charit[able], line 16 - dis[cerned]
line 8 - centre, line 9 - circular, line 10 - pronounced, line 12 - only, line 13 - to (towards?), line 15 - Camps, line 23 - the, line 24 - Every
line 21 - h[---]

check 4th line from end (third way across) - frowning?
check 2nd last line (near middle) - quack?