'highly probable to be, as Mr. Horfely imagines, the Summer camp
o f that at Barrens.
The view from the fummit is extremely e-xtenfive : the town of
Lochmaban, with its lake and ruined caftle, built on a heart-lhaped
peninfula •, Queenfbury hill, which gives title to the Duke ; Hani-
fell, and the Loders, which difpute for height; yet a third, the
Driffels, was this day patched with fnow; and laftly, Ericjlmt,
which fofters the Annan, thzClyde and the Tweed.
Defcend and pafs through the fmall town o f Ecckfechan (ecclijk
■Etchant) noted for the great monthly markets for cattle.
Near this place, on the eftate o f Mr. Irvine, writer, was found
/an antiquity whofe ufe is rather doubtful: the metal is gold ; the
-length rather more than feven inches and a half; the weight 2 02.
.and a half and 15 gs. It is round and very flender in the middle,
-at each end grows thicker, and o f a conoid form, terminating
.with a flat circular plate : on the fide of one end are ftamped the
words Helenas fe c it; on the other is prick’d . . . . 111 M B. From
/the flendernefs o f the middle part, and the thicknefs of the ends,
It might perhaps ferve as a fattening of a garment, by inferting it
through holes on each fide, and then twifting together this pliant
metal.
Keep along the plain, arrive again on the banks o f thz Annan, and
have a very elegant view of its wooded margent, the bridge, a light
ftrudture with three arches, one o f fifty-two feet, the others of
twenty-five, with the turrets o f Haddam caftle a little beyond, overtopping
a very pretty grove.
H oddam c a s t l e . The caftle confifts o f a great fquare tower, with three flender
round turrets : the entry through a door prote&ed by another of
iron
iron bars; near it a fquare hole, by way of dungeon, and a ftair-
tafe of ft one, fuited to the place: but inftead o f finding a cap-
five damfel and a fierce warder, met with a courteous laird and
his beauteous fp o u fe a n d the dungeon not filled with piteous
captives, but well ftored with generous wines, not condemned to
a long imprifonment.
I phis caftle, or rather ftrong border-houfe, was built by John
Lord Harries, nick-named John de Reeve, a ftrenuous fupporter
of Mary Stuart, who conveyed her fafe from the battle of Lang-
fde to his houfe of Terrigles, in Galloway, and from thence to
the abby of Hundrmmn, and then accompanied her in a fmall
veffel in her fatal flight into England. Soon after, it was furren-
dered * to the regent Murray, who appointed the Laird o f Drum-
icmrig Governor and Lord o f the marches. Before the accefiion
of James VI, Hoddam was one of the places o f defence on the
borders; for ‘ the houfe of Howdam was to be keped with ane
‘ Iwife ftout man, and to have with him four well-horfed men,
‘ land thir to have two ftark footmen fervants to keep their horfes,
and the principal to have ane ftout footman -f-.
■ In the walls about this houfe are preferved altars and infcrip-
tions found in the ftation at Barrens: as they do not appear to
have fallen under the notice of the curious, an enumeration o f
them perhaps will not be unacceptable; therefore lhall be added
in the appendix.
I Near Hoddam, on an eminence, is a fquare building, called the
lower of repentance. On it is carved the word repentance, with a
* HoUinJhed’s hiit. Scoti. 393. + Border laws, app. 197.
P ferpent