62
topography    of   Dumfriesshire,    which    confirm    both   the    tradition   and
history (i).
In discussing such topographical investigations, it ought constantly to he
remarked that the great influx of English, who then spoke Saxon, Anglo-
Normans, and Flemings under David I. and his two grandsons, Malcolm and
William, who themselves spoke Saxon, must necessarily have had the greatest
effect in changing the names of places in Scotland ; as they mostly all received,
from those sovereigns, grants of lands, and generally gave new names to their
Scottish estates. The several maps of the shires of Scotland are the best
evidence of the truth of this reasoning.
The modern antiquities, consisting of castles, towers, and churches, will
he mentioned as we proceed. There is, however, a sculptured obelisk in
Ruthwell church-yard, which, as it is an undoubted remain of the Gothic
people, merits particular notice. This remarkable monument was already
broken into three parts before Gordon inspected it (j). " It is in form,"
he says, "like Egyptian obelisks at Rome. Its sculptures show that it
was erected by zealous Christians, and its ruined inscriptions evince that it
was inscribed by Danish hands" (k); and it cannot be older, if so old, as
the ninth century, though tradition is silent about the time and the cause of
its erection (l). The Cross of Merkland, which stands on the east side of
Kirtlewater, a little north of Woodhouse-tower, is a more modern monument,
and of which tradition talks without certainty. It is a lofty pillar with sculp-
tures, which, however, do not settle when and on what occasion it was here
erected, or called the Cross of Merkland (m). Pennant, in his progress
northward from Ruthwell, passed a square inclosure of the size of half an
(i) The minister of Lochmaben says, that there are many tumuli in that part of the country, and
particularly one of much larger size which is called Rockhall moat, and which is a beautiful earthen
tumulus of a conical shape. Stat. Acco., vii. 241. Such are the traces, which tend to confirm the
truth, both of that emigration and of this conflict.
(j) See his Itinerarium Septent., p. 161.
(k) Ib. pl. 57 and 58.
(l) Pennant's Tour, iii. 85-6.
(m) Stat. Acco.. xiii. 273-4. Yet, the minister of Kirkpatrick Fleming assures us that, it is
reported to have been erected upon the spot where the master of Maxwell, the acting warden
of the marches, was assassinated by one of his own men, after he had defeated the Duke of
Albany and the Earl of Douglas upon their predatory invasion of Scotland in 1483. Id. But.
the arms inscribed of four flower-de-lis are not the armorial bearings of the Maxwells, See Nisbet's
Heraldry. Garrioch says, "that this cross, which is called the cross of  Woodhouse, was
erected on the death of Lord Crosby, who was there slain.'' See MS. Macfarlan, Advocate's
Library,