J u n e 5>.
from the Nith to Lockermofs, where watch and ward were conftantly
k ept, and when an enemy appeared the cry was a Loreburn, a Lori,
burn. The meaning is no further known than that it was a word of1
alarm for the inhabitants to take to their arms : and the fame word I
as a memento of vigilance is infcribed on a ring o f filver round the
ebony ftaff given into the hands o f the pravoft as a badge of office on
the day of annual election.
On moil o f the eminences of thefe parts, beacons were life
wife eftabliihed for alarming the country on any eruption of theirl
fbuthern neighbors-: and the inhabitants able to bear arms wen
bound, on the firing of thefe fignals, to repair inftantly to the
warden of the marches,, and not to depart till the enemy was driven
out of the country | and this under pain of high treafon.
This regulation was eftabliihed in the days o f Archibald tk\
grim, Earl o f Douglas, and afterwards renewed with much jo|
lemnity by William Earl of Douglas, who aflembled the lords,!
freeholders, and principal borderers at the college of Lincluden, and
caufed them there to fwear on the holy evangelifts, that they fhould
truly obferve the ftatutes, ordinances and ufages of the marches,,
as they were ordained in the time of the faid Archibald.
Had a beautiful view of an artificial water-fall juft in front of s
bridge, originally built by Devorgilla, who gave the cuftoms arifing
from it to the Francifcan convent at Dumfries, It confifts of nine
arches,.and connefts this county and that of Galloway.
Crofs i t ; pafs through a fmall town at its foot, and walk lip
Gorbelly hill, remarkable for the fine circumambient profpect of
the charming windings of the Nith towards the fea, the town of.
fm g t