Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/399

 s. viii. NOV. 9, INI.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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wearing of oak leaves, the eating of fish and bread, together with the lighting of the Mid- summer bonfire, which formerly took place here, when the people jumped through the flames, all seem to point to a much older institution than the creation of burghs with their frequent grant of town lands. The village community in India at the present time seems to show the condition of things as it existed in this country in the remote past. (See Mr. Gomrne's ' Village Community,' "Contemporary Science Series," Walter Scott.) As I have already said, it is difficult to know what is really old and significant in the modern festivals, but I think it is legiti- mate to infer that the riding of the marches to-day is a relic of the old worship, religious beliefs, and community rights of our pagan ancestors. W. E. WILSON.

Hawick, Roxburghshire.

The ancient ceremony of riding the marches of the royal burgh of Dumfries was revived on 26 September last, after an interval of fifty-nine years. This year, being the first of a new century, and the first of a new sovereign's reign, was deemed suitable for the revival, and the precedents of 1827 and 1842 were followed in several respects. Full accounts of all the proceedings on the occasion are to be found in the Dumfries Standard and Dumfries Herald of 28 Sep- tember.

At 8.30 A.M. on the 26th two parties of deputies, duly authorized by written com- missions which were handed to them by Provost Glover, set out to walk the marches, one party following the northern section, the other the southern section of the boundary of the royalty, the whole length of which is about fifteen miles, and both parties ended their journey at Douievale, two and a half miles from the town of Dumfries on the Annan road.

At 11 A.M. the Provost, wearing his robes of office and accompanied by the magistrates and councillors and all the burgh officials, left the town hall in carriages for Douievale, and this civic procession was followed by some ninety horsemen and a large number of people in conveyances and on foot, for it was one of the days of the annual Rood Fair, which always attracts to Dumfries a great concourse of persons.

At Douievale the deputies reported to the Provost that their journey had been success- fully accomplished, whereupon the town band played 'Scots wha hae.' The town clerk then read a magisterial proclamation, which began with a recital of the charter granted by Robert III. in 1395, in confirmation of a

previous charter, believed to have been granted by William the Lion. The procla- mation ended thus :

" I do solemnly proclaim the boundaries of the royal burgh of Dumfries, and do call upon the whole burgesses and community of the said burgh to fulfil their duties of burgees-ship to our Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty and the burgh, by defend- ing so far as in them lies all and every our said liberties and privileges against all who would trouble and molest the same, and that as our ancestors have handed down to us our inheritance we may so protect it that we and our successors may in all the old and righteous boundaries and marches enjoy all the rights and privileges of the burgh, freely and honourably, well and in peace, as our and their heritage for ever. God save the King ! "

Provost Glover then made a short speech, concluding with the couplet from John Home : Flourish, Dumfries ! May Heaven increase thy

store Till Criffel sink and Nith shall be no more !

W. S.

This must have been a constant practice, for the phrase became proverbial in the sense of "defining." Thus William Crawford, in a little book that was once popular, 'A Short Manual against Infidelity,' first published in 1733, puts the hypothesis of God being "without holiness and justice to ride the marches between good and evil " (ed. Edin., 1836, p. 106, where a note is added, "i.e., fix the boundaries ") ; and he uses the expression more than once. Part of this * Manual ' was originally delivered as a sermon at Jedburgh in 1732. W. C. B.

POEM WANTED (9 th S. viii. 185, 308). Sheriff Glassford Bell, author of 'Mary, Queen of Scots,' succeeded Sir Archibald Alison as Sheriff of Lanarkshire in 1867, holding the post till his death on 7 January, 1874. In early Edinburgh days he contributed to "Constable's Miscellany" a 'Life of Mary, Queen of Scots,' in two volumes. This reached a second edition in 1831. Bell is said to be the Tallboys of the ' Noctes Ambrosianae.' He conducted for three years the Edinburgh Literary Journal, and was a persona grata in the literary circles of the Scottish metropolis when Christopher North was at the height of his fame and influence. In 1831 he pub- lished a volume of poems entitled ' Summer and Winter Hours,' following it a year later with k My Old Portfolio ' a miscellany of prose and verse. His last contribution to belles- lettres was the volume ' Romances, and other Poems,' 1865. A man of varied culture and interests, Bell wrote on diverse subjects. As early as 1827 he published ' Selections of the Most Remarkable Phenomena of Nature.'