A Large Description of Galloway
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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com #}aruart College Libraru FROM THE GIFT OF ALEXANDER COCHRANE OF BOSTON A. LARGE DESCRIPTION OF GALLOWAY. A LARGE DESCRIPTION OF GALLOWAY, BY ANDREW SYMSON, MINISTER OF KIRKINNER, M. D.C.LXXX. IV. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING ORIGINAL PAPERS, FROM THE SIBBALD AND MACFARLANE MSS. EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR W. AND C. TAIT. M.DCCC.XXIII. & º NOW 11 1916 (188Aºt 3:/£- a...? % Mvia tºc 2.17% 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. NoTICE - - - - p - - - V DESCRIPTION OF GALLOWAY. Advertisement by the Author . 3 Introduction - - 5 Stewartry of Kirkcudburgh 7 Shire of Wigton - • e - . 33 Answers to Queries concerning Galloway 70 APPENDIX. I. Galloway typographised by Mr Timothy Pont . 111 II. Description of the Stewartrie of Kirkcudbright 118 III. Description of the Parish of Kirkpatrick Durham, 125 IV. Description of the Parish of Minigaff - . 132 V. Description of the Sheriffdom of Wigton . 144 VI. Farther Account of Galloway, by Dr Archbald 149 VII. Description of the Bounds of the Presbytery of Penpont . - - - - - . 151 VIII. Dedication of Symson's Tripatriarchichon . 170 IX. Preface to Symson's Tripatriarchichon . 177 X. Funeral Elegies, by Symson . 189 NoTICE. - } ANDREw SYMSoN, the author of the fol lowing Description of Galloway, was a Curate of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was Minister of the Parish of Kirkinner, in Wigtonshire, for upwards of twenty years prior to the Revolution. Little is known of his personal history, previous to the com mencement of his ministry. We have his own authority for stating, that he received a university education, and was the condis ciple of Alexander Earl of Galloway, who succeeded to his title and estates in 1671." It is probable that Symson formed an early intimacy with this nobleman, under the pa * Dedication to Tripatriarchichon. Appendix, No. VIII. vi NOTICE. tronage of whose father, Earl James, it may be presumed, he was introduced into the pa rish of Kirkinner about 1663. Long after losing his incumbency,” he speaks of his lot there as having been “cast in a very pleasant place.” Not that he was exempted from the persecutions of the dark time during which his ministry lasted. In 1679, when the pub lic acknowledgment of an Episcopal clergy man in Scotland was looked upon as a crime, Symson informs us, that he was “necessitate to retire to a quiet lurking place.” The family of Galloway did not desert him in this the day of his distress. Earl Alexander re ceived him into his house, where he was pro tected and treated with the greatest kind IleSS. - His congregation, however, gradually de serted him, and his hearers were at length 1 1705. * Preface to Tripalriarchichon. Appendix, No. IX. * Appendix, No. VIII. NOTICE. vii reduced to two or three. Among these, he speaks with much affection of David Dunbar, younger of Baldone, only son of Sir David Dunbar of Baldone, Baronet. This gentle man lost his life by a fall from his horse on the 20th of March, 1682, in riding between Leith and Holyrood-House. He was comme morated in a Funeral Elegie by Symson, which contains the following lines:– “In th’ late Rebellion, that unhappy time When loyalty was look'd on as a crime, And Royalists were hooted at like owles, Esteem’d deserving nought but scoffs and scowles, Frowns, mocks, and taunts, of which HE had his share; (And 'twas my daily bread, and constant fare;) In that unhappy time, I say, when I Was almost drown'd in deep perplexity, When many persons would no longer stay, And all my summer birds fled quite away; Yet he (brave soul) did always constant prove ; My change of fortune never changed his love; For change who lik'd, he ever was the same; In nothing chang'd, save that he chang'd his name. His name was only chang'd, but not the man; I was the David, he the Jonathan. He was no schismatick, he ne'er withdrew Himself from th’ House of God; he with a few viii NOTICE. (Some two or three) came constantly to pray For such as had withdrawn themselves away. Nor did he come by fits; foul day or fair, I, being i'th’ church, was sure to see him there. Had he withdrawn, 'tis like these two or three, Being thus discourag'd, had deserted me. So that my muse 'gainst Priscian avers He, HE alone, werE my parishioners, Yea, and my constant hearers Oh that I Had pow'r to eternize his memory, Then (though my joy, my glory, and my crown, By this unhappy fall be thus fall'n down,) I'd rear an everlasting monument, A curious structure of a large extent, A brave and stately pile, that should out-bid Egyptian Cheops's costly Pyramid; A monument that should outlive the blast Of time and malice too; a pile should last Longer than hardest marble, and surpass The bright and durable Corinthian brass.” In the remainder of this Elegy, David Dunbar is described as an active country gen tleman, and a well-educated, intelligent scho lar, possessing an amiable and affectionate disposition, and on many trying occasions acting as the bosom friend of his persecuted minister. About the period of the Revolution, Sym NOTICE. ix son retired to Edinburgh, where he became an author and a printer. His most elaborate work is a poem, which he printed and pub lished at Edinburgh in 1705, under the fol lowing title:–TRIPATRIARCHICON; or, the Lives of the three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, eatracted forth of the Sacred Story, and digested into English verse by ANDREw SYMSON, M.A., and then Minister of Kirkinner. Little can be said in commendation of the poetry of this volume. Indeed, in a Funeral Elegie upon the death of Sir Alexander M'Culloch of Myrtoun, Baro net, qui vi et injuria aquarum periit, Junii 3, 1675, Symson thus apologises for the de fects of his rustick muse:— “ I never was in Greece; never did behold The Muses comely walk, describ'd of old By such as knew it well; I never saw The famous Hippocrene, digg’d by the claw Or hoof of winged Pegasus; not I. Alas! I never was admitted to come nigh The same by many stages, or tread on The pleasant way that leads to Helicon. x NOTICE. I never drank of the pure crystall fountain, Nor ever slept on the renown'd mountain Of fork't Parnassus: No, my Muse was bred In a cold climate, and I rest my head Beneath Arcturus and his sons” The Dedication and Preface to the Tri patriarchicon are curious, and disclose a va riety of particulars regarding the Author. The former is addressed to James, Earl of Galloway, the son of Symson's patron, Earl Alexander—the latter to the reader. The Dedication contains a short genealogical ac count of the family of Galloway, and in ad dition to the particulars already mentioned respecting the patronage and protection of Symson by Earl Alexander, he informs us in this piece, that, after he left Kirkinner, two of Earl James's younger brothers were en trusted to the care of his son as a tutor. In the Preface to his poem, Symson gives a sketch of the ecclesiastical state of Galloway * Appendix, No. VIII. IX. NOTICE. xi during the period of his incumbency, which will be found far from uninteresting. It is written in a very pleasing and amiable tone, and conveys a most favourable impression of the character and intelligence of the author— breathing, in all its allusions to the distracted state of the country, much of that resigned spirit, in which he remarks, towards the com mencement of his Description of Galloway, that he was a residenter in the parish of Kirkinner, “by the providence of God, and the protection of his Sacred Majestie's laws, for more than twentie years, per varios ca sus, et per discrimina rerum.” Symson was also the author of several Elegies. The Editor is not aware of the precise period at which they were printed. * In 1707, Symson printed a small volume, entitled “AEYTEPOXKOIIIA ; or a brief Discourse concerning the Second Sight, commonly so called ; by John Fraser, Minister of Teree and Coll, and Dean of the Isles: Published by Mr Andren, Symson, nith a short Account of the Author.” 5 xii NOTICE. They are of considerable rarity, and he has only seen one copy, which was most politely communicated to him by Sir Walter Scott. It is bound up with the Tripatriarchichon ; but has no title-page, and bears no date. The two first Elegies are upon Archbishop Sharpe and Sir George M'Kenzie of Rosehaugh, King's Advocate during the reigns of Charles the Second and James the Second. The re maining Elegies, eleven in number, are in tended to commemorate different persons con nected with the Shire of Wigton. Of these, in addition to the lines already quoted from the Elegies upon David Dunbar of Baldone, and Sir Alexander M'Culloch of Myrtoun, a specimen will be found in the Appendix." During Symson's residence at Kirkinner, a series of queries was extensively circulated in Scotland by Sir Robert Sibbald, for the purpose of procuring information with a view 1 No. X. NOTICE. xiii to the publication of a Scottish Atlas. This eminent person had previously obtained a patent from Charles the Second, to be his Majesty's Geographer for the kingdom of Scotland; and in a manuscript account of his life, preserved in the Library of the Fa culty of Advocates, he informs us, that, “ in order to the accomplishment of the descrip tion of the kingdome, I did, in the year 1682, publish in our language ane advertisement, and some generall queries, copies whereof were sent over all the kingdome.” These inquiries attracted the attention of Symson, who undertook the task of drawing up a general Description of Galloway.