[The Siller gun of Dumfries is a small silver tube, like the barrel
of a pistol, but derives great importance from its being the gift
of James VI., that monarch having ordained it as a prize to the
best marksman among the corporations of Dumfries. The contest was,
by royal authority, licensed to take place every year; but in
consequence of the trouble and expense attending it, the custom has
not been so frequently observed. Whenever the festival was
appointed, the 4th of June, during the long reign of George III.,
was invariably chosen for that purpose, being his majesty's
birthday. The institution itself may be regarded as a memorial of
the _Waponshaw_, or showing of arms, the shooting at butts and
bowmarks, and other military and gymnastic sports, introduced by
our ancestors to keep alive, by competition and prizes, the martial
ardour and heroic spirit of the people. In archery, the usual prize
to the best shooter was a silver arrow: at Dumfries the contest was
transferred to fire-arms. See the preface to the _Siller Gun_, a
poem in five cantos, by John Mayne, 1836.]
_Margery Trussell._--Margery, daughter and coheiress of Roger Trussell,
of Macclesfield, married Edmund de Downes (of the old Cheshire family of
Downes of Taxall, Shrigley, &c.) in the fourth year of Edward II. Query,
What arms did she bear? and were the Trussells of Macclesfield of the
same family as that which, in consequence of a marriage with an heiress
of Mainwaring, settled at Warmineham, in the reign of Edward III., and
whose heiress, in later times, married a De Vere, Earl of Oxford?