a county in the south of Scotland, comprehending the shire of Nithsdale, the stewarty of Annandale, and the lordship of Eikdale, extends in length from north-west to south-east about 60 miles, and is about 30 miles in breadth where broadest. It is bounded on the south-west by Galloway and part of Kyle; on the north-east by the counties of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles; on the north-west by Clydesdale; and on the south-east by Solway frith and the marches between Scotland and England. A great part of the country is mountainous and overspread with heath, well stocked with game of all kinds: but the valleys, through which the Esk, the Annan, the Nith, and other smaller rivers run, are extremely pleasant; and some of them well cultivated, and very fertile, and produce oats, barley, and wheat in abundance, both for maintaining the inhabitants and for exportation; while the mountainous parts afford pasture for innumerable flocks of sheep and herds of black cattle, many thousands of which are annually exported to England. In the valleys are several natural woods, and some extensive plantations of different kinds of timber. In the division called Nithsdale, are the rich lead mines of Wanlockhead, the coal mines of Sanquhar and Cairnburn, the inexhaustible lime quarries of Clofearn and Barjag, and freestone in almost every parish. Annandale has the rich lime quarries of Kellhead and Comlongan, with plenty of freestone near the towns of Annan and Lochmaben: and in the lower part of Eikdale are limestone and some coal.

The following is a view of the population of this Dumfries county, with the number of souls in each parish, taken at two different periods, and extracted from the Statistical History of Scotland.

<table> <tr> <th>Parishes.</th> <th>Population in 1755.</th> <th>Population in 1790</th> <th>Population in 1798.</th> </tr> <tr><td>Annan</td><td>1498</td><td>2500</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Applegirth</td><td>897</td><td>741</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Caerlaverock</td><td>784</td><td>955</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Cannobie</td><td>1733</td><td>2725</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Clofearn</td><td>999</td><td>1490</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Cummetrees</td><td>631</td><td>1056</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Dalton</td><td>451</td><td>615</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Dornock</td><td>716</td><td>738</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Drysdale</td><td>1097</td><td>1600</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Dumfries</td><td>4517</td><td>5600</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Dunfcore</td><td>651</td><td>1033</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Durrifdeer</td><td>1019</td><td>1031</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Eikdalemuir</td><td>675</td><td>619</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Ewes</td><td>392</td><td>320</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Glencairn</td><td>1794</td><td>1700</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Gratney</td><td>1051</td><td>1810</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Hoddam</td><td>1393</td><td>1198</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Holywood</td><td>596</td><td>736</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Hutton</td><td>993</td><td>583</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Johnston</td><td>494</td><td>565</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Keir</td><td>495</td><td>520</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Kirkconnell</td><td>899</td><td>1000</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Kirkmahoe</td><td>1098</td><td>1200</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Kirkmichael</td><td>894</td><td>950</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Kirkpatrick Fleming</td><td>1147</td><td>1542</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Kirkpatrick Juxta</td><td>794</td><td>617</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Langholm</td><td>1833</td><td>2582</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Lochmaben</td><td>1395</td><td>3000</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Middlebie</td><td>991</td><td>1404</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Moffat</td><td>1612</td><td>1600</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Morton</td><td>435</td><td>928</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Moulswald</td><td>553</td><td>628</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Penpont</td><td>838</td><td>800</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Ruthwell</td><td>599</td><td>1061</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>St Mungo</td><td>481</td><td>640</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Sanquhar</td><td>1998</td><td>2600</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Tinwald</td><td>795</td><td>850</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Torthorwald</td><td>584</td><td>660</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Tundergarth</td><td>625</td><td>510</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Tynron</td><td>464</td><td>500</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Wamphray</td><td>458</td><td>487</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Westerkirk</td><td>544</td><td>655</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2">41,913</td><td>52,329</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td><td>41,913</td><td></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2">Increase,</td><td>10,416</td><td></td></tr> </table>

the capital of the above mentioned county, a handsome town situated on a ridge or rising ground on the north-east side of the river Nith, about 10 miles above where it falls into Solway frith, in N. Lat. 55. 8. 30. Long. W. of Greenwich Observatory, 3. 56. Its ancient name, it is said by some of the Scotch historians, was Cotiac; but on what authority we cannot tell. Its present name appears to have been derived partly from its situation, and partly from the monastery of Gray Friars that formerly stood near the head head of the street called the Friar vennal, the kitchen of which is all that now remains; being only a corruption of Drum friars, or "the eminence of the friary:" and accordingly, till within these 40 or 50 years, it was always spelt Dumfries, and not Dumfries, as it is now for the sake of greater softness. Besides the pleasantness of its situation on the side of a beautiful winding river, it is surrounded on all sides with one of the finest and best cultivated sheets of dale country that one can anywhere meet with, and the prospect from it terminated, at the distance of a few miles, by a continued chain of hills, forming altogether one of the grandest natural amphitheatres perhaps in Britain. There was anciently a strong castle at the south end of the town belonging to the Cummings, lords of Badenoch, of which there are now no remains. Another castle was afterwards built at the north-west end, which was taken down about 76 years ago. On the north-east side of it, at some little distance, are the ruins of a chapel built by King Robert Bruce, and endowed for a number of priests to say mass for the repose of the soul of Sir Christopher Seaton his brother-in-law, who was taken prisoner by Edward I. at Loch Urr, and hanged at this place. It is now only employed as a burying place for suicides. It is not certain at what period Dumfries was erected into a royal borough; but it must have been before the middle of the eleventh century, as a grave-stone was discovered some time ago bearing the date of 1079, and mentioning the person buried under it to have been a merchant and burgess of the town; and that it was a place of consequence in the beginning of the fourteenth century, is evident from this circumstance, that Edward II. called the estates of Scotland to meet there in the year 1307. In the above mentioned monastery too, King Robert Bruce killed his rival Cumming lord of Badenoch, with the assistance of James Lindsay and Roger Kirkpatrick, on the 4th of February 1305. As to the present state of the town, the houses are well built and commodious, the streets spacious, open, and neatly paved. It has two very elegant churches, an Episcopal chapel with a fine little organ, besides three meeting houses belonging to different descriptions of sectaries; a tolbooth; a council chamber; a trades hall; a meal market; a strong prison; a correction house; a large hospital; an infirmary, with apartments for insane patients; a narrow bridge of nine arches over the river, said to have been built by one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Alan Lord Galloway. A large village, called the Bridge-end, stands on the opposite side, and is within the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. The assizes for the county, and for the shire of Galloway and stewartry of Kirkcudbright, are held in the town twice a-year. It is also the place for holding the sheriff and commissary courts, the quarter-sessions of the peace, and the courts of the commissioners of supply. It is governed by a provost, three bailies, a dean of guild, and a town council, composed of merchants and the convener and deacons of the incorporated trades, of which there are seven, viz. square-men, smiths, weavers, tailors, shoemakers, skinners, and batchers; all of whom are chosen into their respective offices at Michaelmas annually. The trades got from King James VI. in one of his journeys to England, a small silver tube, like a pistol barrel, called the silver gun, with his royal license to shoot for it every year. At that Dumfries festival they all appear in arms, and march out of the town under their respective colours, to some convenient place, where they shoot at a mark; and the person that hits or shoots nearest to it, returns to town, marching at the convener's right hand, with the silver gun tied to his hat with ribbons; after which they conclude the day with a social entertainment. The town has a weekly market on Wednesday, with two annual fairs, the first on the Wednesday on or next after the 13th of February, and the other on the Wednesday on or next after the 29th of September. At these fairs vast numbers of horses and black cattle are sold; and no town in Scotland is better provided with all sorts of butcher meat in their season. But though well situated for fuel at a cheap rate, it has only two manufactures, one for stockings and the other for cottons; but the latter only in its infancy. Its foreign trade for many years has only consisted in timber, iron, and other articles for home consumption. It gives the title of earl to the chief of the family of Crichton; and is the seat of a presbytery and provincial synod. It contains about 6000 inhabitants.