A n t i e n t
OBELISK.
Vefiels of about two hundred and fifty tuns can come within halfa
mile of the town, and o f fixty as high as the bridge. This place has
fome trade in wine: the annual exports are between twenty and
thirty thoufand Winchejter buihels o f corn.
The caftle was entirely demolilhed, by order o f parlement, after
the acceffion of James VI. to the crown of England, and only the
ditches remain. But Arman was in a manner ruined by Whartm,
Lord Prefident of the marches, who, in the reign o f Edward VI,
overthrew the church, and burnt the town; the firft having been
fortified by th e Scots*, under a Lyon o f the houfeof Glames.
The Bruces were once Lords o f this place, as appears by a fton e
at prefent in a wall o f a gentleman’s garden, taken from the ruins of
the caftle, and thus infcribed, Robert de Brus Counte de Carrick et
fenteur du val de Annand. 1300.
. After dinner make an excurfion o f five miles to Ruth-well, paflingj
over the Annan on a bridge of five arches, defended by a gateway/
The country refembles that I palled over in the morning, hut at
Newby-Nsck obferve the ground formed into eminences, fo remarkably
as to occafion a belief of their being artificial, but are certainly
nothing more than the freaks of nature.
The church of Ruthwell contains the ruins o f a moft curious
monument; an obelilk once of a great height, now lying in three
pieces, broken by an order of the general affembly in 1644, under
pretence o f its being an objeft of fuperftition among the vulgar.
When entire it was probably about twenty feet high, exclufive of l
pedeftal and capital; making allowances in the meafurement of the
Ay/cough's Hift. of the wars of Sect I. and Engl. 321.
I N S C O T L A N D . 9J
[prefent pieces for fragments chipped off, when it was deftroyed: it
¡originally confifted o f two pieces ; the loweft, now in two, had been
[fifteen feet long -, the upper had been placed on the other by means
lof afocket: the form was fquare and taper, but the fides o f unequal
¡breadth: the two oppofite on one fide at bottom were eighteen
inches and a half, at top only fifteen ;«the narrower fide fixteeh at
¡bottom, eleven at top. Two o f the narroweft fides are ornamented
jwith vine-leaves, and animals intermixed with runic charadters
garound the margin : on one o f the other fides is a very rude figure
lof our Saviour, with each foot on the head of fome beafts : above and
leach fide him are infcribed in Saxon letters, Jefus Chriftus—judex equi-
tatis, certo falvatoris mundi et. an— perhaps as Mr. Gordon * imagines,
wlngelorum—Befiia et Dracones cognoverant inde— — and laftly are the
¡words, fregerunt panem.
I Beneath the two animals is a compartment with two figures, one
¡bearded, the other not, and above is infcribed, Santtus Paulus.
| On the adverfe fide is our Saviour again, with Mary Magdalene
¡walking his feet, and the box o f ointment in his hand. The in-
Jfcriptions, as made out by Mr. Gordon, are, Alabaftrum unguenti
p—— ejus Lachrymis capit rigare pedes, ejus capillis---- “ capitis fui terne-
Uat----- et prateriens vidi.
The different fculptures were probably the work o f different
|times and different nations ; the firft that of the chriftian Saxons;
the other of the Danes, who either found thofe fides plain ; or
[defacing the' antient carving, replaced it with fome o f their own,
j,Tradition fays, that the church was built over this obelilk, long
* Itin. 161.
O after