MAXWELLTOWN  , a

burgh of barony and police burgh of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland . Pop . (1901), 5796 . It lies on the Nith, opposite to Dumfries, with which it is connected by three bridges, being united with it for parliamentary purposes . It has a station on the Glasgow & South-Western line from Dumfries to Kirkcudbright . Its public buildings include a court-house, the prison for the south-west of Scotland, and an observatory and museum, housed in a disused windmill . The chief manufactures are woollens and hosiery, besides dyeworks and 'sawmills . It was a hamlet known as Bridgend up till 18ro, in which year it was erected into a burgh of barony under its present name . To the north-west lies the parish of Terregles, said to be a corruption of Tir-eglwys (terra ecclesia, that is, " Kirk land ") . The parish contains the beautiful ruin of Lincluden Abbey (see DUMFRIES), and Terregles House, once the seat of William Maxwell, last earl of Nithsdale . In the parish of Lochrutton, a few miles south-west of Maxwelltown, there is a good example of a stone circle, the " Seven Grey Sisters," and an old peel-tower in the Mains of Hills .