Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

i'li INTKOl'UCTroX.
Jand eaildoni tbal Ihc parchment on wliicli tlip. cliarter is cngrossi-d mcasmec
in length live feet one incli, and in bveadlli four feet llirce inches, giving a
surface of nearly twenty-tv.-o scjna^e foot. The ciuater contains two liundrcd
and thirty-seven lines, and every line, taking an average, contains one linndred
and three words, which gives a total of words in the charter of iiccaty-four
thousand four hundred and eleven icords.
VPl'El ; AXXAXI ) A LE.
The. district of Upper Aunandale forms an i'nporfant and interesting part
of Dumfriesshire. The hills and dales, which are characteristic features,
give to this portion of the dale a diversified heanly, an.d even grandeur, whicli
}ia\e not failed to attract the attention and to engage the pen Loth of the poet
and of the romancer. Tlie district includes the ihree dales of Annan, Moffat,
and Evan, so named after the three waters whose channels they respectively
follow. Annandale traverses the central portion of Dumfriesshire from
iioroh to south, while iloffatdale flanks it on tlie east, and Evandtde ou the
west, tlie three dales in their course being almost parallel to eacli otJier.
The lands of JlofTatdale and Evandale were long a Herries and Maxwell
possession. King James the Second granted to David Heris of Trareglis and
Margaret Crcichtonue, daughter of L'ohcrt Cieiclitoune of Sanquhar, kniglit,
forty merklands in Avandale and four merklands in Hutton,- wjiicli John
Heris, fatiier of tlie grantee, resigned in the hands of the king as tutor
and governor ;o Ins son Alexander, Duke of Albany, Ear of Marcli, and
Lord of Annaiidale.i It appears from this charter that John Herries was the
first possessor of ]->,andale of the family of Herries. The king, in appointing
Herboit Herries as curator to John Heriies, excepted from his charge a forty
pound laud to be given to David the son.^ In HC4 he witnesses a charter
as Sir David Heris uf Avaiidale.*
J Dated iOtli .July 1459, ftegislcr of the Grent .Se.il, vol. ii. Xo. 'U.
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