DITMERIES', a royal, parliamentary, and municipal burgh, river-port, and county town of Dumfriesshire, on the left bank of the Nith, 9 m. from its mouth in the Solway firth, 73 m. s. by w. of Edinburgh, and 33 w.n.w. of Carlisle. It stands on a rising ground, surrounded, except towards the sea, by fine, undulating hills, many of which are green to the top. It is an irregularly built town of red freestone, and is reckoned the capital of the s. of Scotland. Two bridges cross the Nith to 3laxwelltown, a suburb in Kirkcudbright. One of the bridges is believed to have been built about 1280, by Devorgilla, the mother of John Baliol, and to have had 9 arches, although some anti quaries claim 13, with a central gate. It is largely, however, a structure of the 17th c. ; only six of its arches now and it is limited to foot-passengers. The most noticeable building in D. is the mid-steeple, in the center of the High street, which was at one time believed to have been erected by Inigo Jones; the architect is now, however, ascertained to have been Tobias Bachup, of Alloa. The very high tides of the Solway firth bring vessels of 40 tons up to the town, and larger ones to the river quays below the town. In 1875, 496 vessels of 25,675 tons entered, and 306 of 19,106 cleared the
port. D. has three large and two small manufactories of woolen cloths (Tweeds); it manufactures hosiery, leather, baskets, and wooden shoes; and it has a considerable reputation for its dye-works, and the nurseries in its vicinity. The chief exports are woolen cloths, wool, hosiery, shoes, sheep, grain, wood, and bark. D. is noted for its markets, live-stOck being here transferred from Scotch to English dealers. Pop. 71, 15,435. It unites with Annan, Sanquhar, Lochmaben, Kirkcudbright, and its suburb, Maxwelltown, in sending one member to parliament. 1). arose, it is believed, in a castle, of which nothing now remains. The early Scotch and English kings had fre quent contests for its possession. About 1200, a monastery was founded here, in the chapel of which Comp' (q.v.) was stabbed by Robert Bruce in 1305. The Highlanders, under prince Charles, in 1745, fined D. £4,000, and plundered and burned it. Burns spent the last years of his life here as an exciseman, and the _house he resided in, and the mausoleum erected to his memory, are among the most notable objects of the place.