63
acre, which was moated round. Of old, this was a place of refuge, wherein
whoever entered was perfectly secure (n). The same curious tourist takes
notice also of an ancient custom, which is now obsolete, but not forgotten.
At an yearly fair, which was held at the confluence of "White and Black
Esk, a kind of imperfect marriage used to take place, by hand-fisting, or the
joining of hands; and having cohabited till the next fair they either wedded
or separated. Pennant attributes this practice of hand-fisting, not to the
coarse and lawless manners of the borderers, but to the want of clergy, without
considering that a clergy were much more numerous formerly than they are at
present.
On an interleaf of Armstrong's Maps of Scotland, there are stated in MS.
regarding the antiquities of Dumfriesshire : 1. Lincluden College, on the Nith,
two miles from Dumfries town ; 2. Drumlanrig House, on the Nith; 3. Hoddam
Castle, on the Annan ; 4. Morton Castle, on the Nith; 5. Sanquhar Castle;
6. Close-burn Castle, 12 miles north of Dumfries ; 7. Hempsfield Castle;
8. Caerlaverock Castle, on the coast. These castles are probably all ruinous,
unless it be Drumlanrig Castle, which now belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch and
Queensberry. Of scenes and situations, the same annotator states Cowhall
Tower, as containing a mew from it of all Nithsdale.
§ v. Of its Establishment as a Shire]. The origin of such an establishment
here is extremely obscure. The late prevalence of a Gaelic people in this dis-
trict, who abhorred such an officer as a sheriff, seems to be the cause of that
obscurity. At the accession of David I., in 1124, the several divisions within
the ample bounds of this district, seem to have existed under the Celtic
form of a chieftaincy rather than the Anglo-Norman polity of a sheriffdom (o).
If we literally understand the before-mentioned charter of William, we are
bound to believe that a sheriff existed here during the life of Joceline, who
died in 1199. During the reign of William, the Scottish king possessed a
castle at Dumfries, which was even then called Vetus castellum, though it
appears not whether it were governed by a constable, a bailiff, a sheriff, or
by whatever officer ; though the sheriff was probably the castellan. Yet, is
(n) Tour, iii., p. 95.
(o) See David I., grant of Annandale to Robert de Brus. In various charters during the-
twelfth century, the towns, parishes, and other places, are described as lying in Stranith, in
Annandale, and in Eskdale, but never in the sheriffdom of Dumfries. Chart. Glasgow. In a
charter, however, of William the Lion, who demised in 1212, enforcing the payment of tithes-
to Joceline, the bishop of Glasgow, the King addressed it to his justiciaries, Sheriff, and all
other his ministers and bailiffs. Id. Yet these may have been words of form rather than,
intimations of fact.