THE HEREDITARY SHERIFFS OF GALLOWAY.* IN its new form, the
late Sir Andrew Agnew's Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway is at once the most interesting and most exhaustive work which has yet been published on what is, from the ethnological, if not also the historical point of view, the most notable district in Scotland. This is largely due to the fact that the author appears to have had a remarkably open mind. He frankly admits that he "rushed prematurely into print many years ago," and that in consequence the book which he then published "abounded with errors of omission and commission." The very extravagance of certain mistakes of his led to their correction. Thus "a statement hazarded that the Agneaux, once numerous, were now entirely extinct in the country which was the cradle of their race' led to a mild remonstrance from the Bocages of Normandy, to which the volume had found its way, that their Scottish representa- tive had not only ignored, but annihilated them." This remonstrance, instead of being taken ill, led to explanations, an exchange of visits, and "the ransacking of the Chateau Isle Mario and the departmental archives of St. Lo, the result being documents innumerable, from which not only details were to be gathered as to the family in France, but particulars as to their settlements in England." "Now knowing," says Sir Andrew with charming ingenuousness, "in what direction to look, many further particulars were gathered from the exhaustive works of our English county historians, and of these more especially Bloomfield and Chauncey." An open mind, however, is not always capable of literary concentra- tion, and Sir Andrew Agnew's book, although it is both con- * Tito Hereditary Sheriff' of Galloway ; their ' Forbears' and Friends, &air Courts, and Customs of their Times; with Notes of the Early Dietary, Ecclesiastical Legends, the Baronage and Placemattun of the Province. By the late Sir Andrew Agnew, Batt., of Leohnaw. 2 vele. Edinburel David Dmitri'''. 1/413. eeived and written in the best possible spirit, is not compactly put together, and is overloaded with digressions and disserta- tions, some of which might well have been omitted. But, taken as a. whole, this work presents an excellent picture of a most interesting region inhabited by more than one interest- ing race, and dominated by more than one interesting family.
Galloway, lying between England and Lowland Scotland, and in sight of Ireland—from the Doon of Kildonan the Roman legionaries in the year 79 "gazed with wonder at the serrated outline of the Mourne Mountains, which, like giant's fingers, seemed to beckon them onwards to new worlds across the stormy waters," was for generations a cockpit for various races—Scots, Picts, Irish, Saxons, and Norsemen. After what Mr. Bright would have termed contemptuously "battles of the kites and crows," there appeared the inevitable "strong man in the person of Fergus, Lord of Galloway, who, between the years 1124 and 1161, managed, in the interludes of fight- ing and intriguing, to give the district a character which it has never altogether lost. Married to a daughter of Henry I. of England, he was yet on terms of friendship, at all events for a time, with the contemporary Kings of Scotland, and possibly on that account was able to do a vast deal in the way of reform for Galloway ; to divide it into parishes, and to cover it with ecclesiastical fabrics, of which the writer of this work says, with scarcely any exaggeration, that, "whether for grandeur of design or chasteness in execution, they cannot even now be surpassed, scarcely imitated." During the stormy times which followed the retirement of Fergus into a convent, and the anarchy caused by the Scottish War of Independence, the overlordship of Galloway frequently changed hands, went into commission, or was suspended altogether. But ultimately the power of administering Gal- loway in the name of the Sovereign and in the interests of law and authority, became fixed in a Norman family known in the chivalry of France as Les Seigneurs cl'Agneaux ' —there is, indeed, still a Marquis St. Marie d'Agneaux—who became Aignells in England and Agnews in Scotland. It was John Aignell who, proceeding from Hertfordshire to the Scottish capital in the days of King David II., received from that Sovereign employment as keeper of the Wigtownshire Castle of Lochnaw, which is still the headquarters of the Agnews. The Douglases were, however, the true lords of Madame Villari's little book will reawaken the charm of Galloway for a time, and it was not till their long feuds Italy and her borders for those who know and love them with their Sovereigns ended in their overthrow, that already, and should certainly also attract many to whom they James the Second established the Sheriffship of Gallo- work that which his previous good cheer could not,' and had him taken to a secret chamber with such as were bidden to the banquet." In plain English, the Abbot was taken to a vault and roasted. At first he declined to yield to his tor- mentors even, under these circumstances. But, "the Earl, 'resorting to the same practices on the 7th of September, which, being performed at the 11 hours at night,' as the Abbot continues, seeing that my flesh was consumed and burnt to the bone, where, though I shall never be well in this life-time, I condescended to their purpose, and the Earl got all his pieces subscribet as wed as a half-roasted hand could do it.' " Galloway and its hereditary Sheriffs shared in all the vicissitudes of Scottish history. The Agnews took their sides like other folks—generally the sides for which Providence ultimately declared—in the times which are distinguished from others by such titles as the Reformation and the Covenant. Not the least interesting chapter in this work is entitled "A Cromwellian Sheriff." It has the merit of being quite freeb. Galloway regiments fought—and were annihilated— in the Battle of Worcester, and in consequence Galloway itself had to submit to the forces of the Commonwealth. English commissioners "discharged all jurisdictions," and Colonel Matthew Alured superseded Sir Andrew Agnew as Sheriff- Principal of Galloway, yet "no notice of the fact has been taken by any chronicler, general or local ; and Colonel Alured'e presence had been entirely forgotten—indeed, un- known—until papers proving it to be a certainty were found in the Lochnaw charter chest." But although Colonel Alured's name may have been forgotten, Cromwell's work seems to have been done in Galloway with the usual thorough- ness. All the barons of the district, with the exception of three, yielded submission. "On such as refused to yield Cromwell laid a heavy hand. Kenmuee Castle and Castle McDowell were burned to the ground ; Lord Galloway was further fined £4,000." In due course the Sheriffship of Galloway was restored to the Agnews, and in the rising of the '4-5 the Sir Andrew of the time—a stout old soldier and Whig, who was also a humorist in his way—defended Blair Castle successfully against Lord George Murray. In. 1747 heritable jurisdictions in Scotland were abolished by Act of Parliament, among them being the hereditary Sheriffship of Galloway. It was fully admitted, however, that "it was but pure justice to give a reasonable equivalent to the holders of Fetich jurisdictions whose tenures by Royal Charters were as valid and positive as any property held by patent in the realm." Sir Andrew put in a claim for £7,000, and was allowed £4,000.
These volumes, while mainly interesting from the his- torical, personal, and (so to speak) dynastic points of view, are also valuable for the flood of light which incidental passages and even, special chapters throw upon Scottish life and customs at all periods, from the dawn of civilisation almost to the present time. It is shown only too conclusively that the stories which have been in circulation for so long about the drinking indulged in at Scotch funerals at the beginning of last century have not been mere exaggerations. "Mr. Boyd, of Myrtoun Hall, describing the funeral of his grandfather, says that the minister of the kirk of Scotland fell off his horse in the avenue quite fou', the horse running away; and the reverend gentleman, unable to move himself, was dragged to one side of the road, where he lay speechless and insensible, while the long funeral procession was passing. His informant, a neighbouring laird, with some sense of propriety, added, 'Was it not a mercy he did not belong to Galloway?'" The following, relating to the Agnews' district a hundred years ago, tells its own tale : "The late Sir William Maxwell used funnily to tell how expensive it was to his grandfather if his lady took a fancy to drive to Wigtown ; for 'there were five march dykes in the ten. miles, in each of which a slap had to be redd for my lady's coach, and rebuilt afterwards." Again : "Gas was absolutely unknown, as well as electric light, the usual candles during all the period being tallow for the household generally; wax being sparingly need, as an expensive luxury. A lucifer-match would have been as great a, wonder to the last Sheriff as to Devorgille, their retainers alike knowing no easier process of fire-raising than by flint and steel. The last Sheriff, like his forbears, was content to draw his water from the well."
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