dumfries-1920/04-076

Transcription

ANNAN.] INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. [APPLEGARTH.

and 35 feet above the higher levels on the
east and south. The mote has been sur-
rounded on the sides away from the river
by a trench, as also probably was the base-
court, but the lines of the whole construction
have been seriously interfered with in the
formation of the villa garden. (See Introd.,
pp. xxxi.-ii.)
lxii. -- N.E. -- 4 October 1912.

MISCELLANEOUS.
4. Inscribed Stone, Annan. - An inscribed
stone, said to have come from the ruins of a
castle or building at or beside The Moat, was
seen and copied by the travellers Pococke and
Pennant. In 1760 Pococke described it as
"a stone taken from the old building." In
the Caledonia Chalmers wrote of it as "built
into the wall of a gentleman's garden." In
the New Statistical Account it is stated to
have been "built into the wall of a small
vintage-house in a garden in the town." Sub-
sequently acquired by an antiquarian resident
in the town, it was taken away by him on his
removal to the south of England. The in-
scription is in well-formed lettering of Lom-
bardic capitals, but the Arabic numerals
forming the date "1300" are obviously not
original and are not cut with either the depth
or breadth of the lettering. The stone is
decayed and damaged in parts. The inscrip-
tion is as follows:-
ROBERT · DE · BRVS ·
COUNTE · DE · CA
[RRIK] · ET · SENƺ [N] U
R] · DU · VAL · D [E · AN] N
AND · 1300
At the end of the third line the ƺ alone offers
difficulty. Pennant, with some justification,
read the word as SENTEUR, against which,
apart from the sense, there is only to be said
that the fourth letter has a straight hori-
zontal top, while every T in the inscription
has a curving top. In all likelihood the word
is, as has always been supposed, a corrupt
rendering of SEIGNEUR, perhaps in some such
form as SENGNUR * or SENYOUR. The date

* "Seingneur" is found, e.g., in Berne MS. See
facsimile in Acts Parl. Scot., vol. i.

1300 was a shrewd enough computation: such
an inscription could not correctly date in any
case earlier then 1292 or later than 1306.
See Pococke's Tours in Scotland (Scottish
History Society, 1887), p. 35, where the
bishop's transcription is reproduced in fac-
simile; Pennant'sTour in Scotland, ii. p.
96; Chalmer's Caledonia, iii. p.139; Neilson
in Trans. Dumf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc., 1915-
16, p. 69 ff.

5. Stone Circle and St. Marjory's Cross (re-
mains of), Woodhead. - On the boundary of the
parishes of Dornock and Annan, between two
plantations and about 1/4 mile west by south
of Woodhead cottage, the O.S. map marks
"Stone Circle and St. Marjory's Cross (re-
mains of)." These now consist of two granitic
boulders about 11 feet 6 inches apart, the
largest of which is some 3 feet in height above
ground.
lxiii. -- N.W. -- 6 October 1912.

SITES.
6. St Bryde's Kirk and Well, Brydekirk
Mains. lvii. S.E.
7. Newbie Castle, Newbie Mains. lxii. S.E.
8. "Cairn of Creca," Creca. lviii. S.W.

APPLEGARTH.

DEFENSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS.
9. Fort, Whitecastle Knowe. - This fort occu-
pies the summit of an oval hillock, known
as the Whitecastle Knowe, which crowns the
western slope of the watershed between the
Dryfe and the Annan, 1/2 mile to the west of
the farm of Newbigging. The hillock stands
at an altitude of 734 feet above sea-level,
and, except for two adjacent heights which
obstruct the view to the south-east and
north-north-west, commands an extensive
panorama. On the north and west it rises
abruptly for some 30 to 40 feet, while on
the south, and still more on the east, the
gradient from the surrounding level is easy.
The enciente is oval in form, with its longest
axis north and south, along which it measures
some 455 feet by 260 feet. It has been
surrounded by a rampart of compacted

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