the capital of Annandale, a division of Dumfriesshire in Scotland; a small town, containing 500 or 600 inhabitants, and situated on a river of the same name, in W. Long. 8° N. Lat. 54° 40'. This place, which is a royal borough, has some trade in wine, and exports annually between 20 and 30,000 Winchester bushels (10 and 15,000 bolls) of corn. Vessels of about 250 tons can come within half a mile of the town; and of 60, as high as the bridge; which consists of five arches, defended by a gateway. A fabric for carding and spinning cotton has lately been erected, and the town begins to increase. Here was formerly a castle; which was built by the Bruces after they became lords of Annandale. Upon the death of David II. the son of King Robert, in 1371, this castle (Lochmaben), and the lordship of Annandale, came to Thomas Randolf Earl of Murray, and went with his sister Agnes to the Dunbars, Earls of March: after their forfeiture it went to the Douglases, who also lost it by the same fate; and then having come to Alex- Alexander Duke of Albany, he, for rebelling against his brother King James III. and plundering the fair of Lochmaben in 1484, was also forfeit. Since which time it continued in the hands of the King, and became the great key of the west border.

The stewartry or district of Annandale, of which Lochmaben castle was the chief fortalice, is a fertile vale, 24 miles long, and about 14 miles broad: from its vicinity to England, and the continual incursions and predatory wars of the borderers, the greatest part of it was uncultivated and common: but since the beginning of the present century, or rather within the last thirty years, all these wastes and commons have been divided and brought into culture, and the country has assumed a new appearance; which may be ascribed not only to the division of the commons, but likewise to the improvement made in the roads, and particularly in the great western road from Edinburgh to London by Moffat, Gratney, and Carlisle, running through this vale, and carried on by some gentlemen of the country, after they had obtained an act of parliament for levying a toll to defray the expense of making and keeping it in repair.

Annandale formed a part of the Roman province of Valentia; and Severus's wall ending here, it abounds with Roman stations and antiquities. The camps at Birrens in Middlebie, and on the hill of Burnswark, are still entire, and their form is preserved; and the traces and remains of a military road are now visible in different parts of the country. The ruins of the house or castle of Auchincloch, in the neighbourhood of Moffat, once the seat of that potent baron, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Murray, Lord of Annandale, and Regent of Scotland in the minority of David II., covers above an acre of ground, and even now conveys an idea of the plan and strength of the building. The ancient castle of Comlongan, formerly belonging to the Murays, Earls of Annandale, and now to Lord Stormont, is still in a tolerable state of preservation; but except this castle and that of Hoddom, most of the other old fortalices and towers are now taken down, or in ruins.

Annandale is a marquessate belonging to the Johnstons, and the chief of the name.