Dalswinton, a small village, with a public school, in Kirkmahoe parish, Dumfriesshire, 2 miles SE by E of Auldgirth station, and 7½ NNW of Dumfries, under which it has a post office. Dalswinton House, 1 mile SSE, and within ½ mile of the Nith's right bank, is an elegant and commodious mansion, erected by Mr Patrick Miller (1731-1815), Burns's landlord, on the site of an ancient castle of the Comyns. This self-made genius launched on an isleted loch (2 x 1 furl.) one of the earliest steamboats, with the most perfect success, 14 Oct. 1788. 'He spent,' says Carlyle, 'his life and his estate in that adventure, and is not now to be heard of in those parts, having had to sell Dalswinton and die quasi-bankrupt, and, I should think, broken-hearted' (Reminiscences, i. 129,130). The estate, held formerly by Comyns, Stewarts, and Maxwells, is now the property of William Macalpine-Leny, Esq. (b. 1839; suc. 1867), who holds 5724 acres in the shire, valued at £4282 per annum.
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