Transactions. 63 



At this early period, therefore, the town of Dumfries 

 would be of importance as a place of trade, and the head 

 burgh of a district. It was also the site of an old castle or 

 fortress* 



It is beautifully and advantageously situate ; and, as a 

 place of trade, has maintained its position amidst many 

 changes for centuries. It is situate on a gentle elevation, 

 skirted on the north and west by the winding Nith, which on 

 the west divides it from Galloway, whence its cattle-markets 

 and connected trades are largely and continuously supplied. 

 On the other sides it was surrounded by 



The Town Wall, 



the course of which was this, — on the north it ran from the 

 Moat-house in an almost straight line to the Mount on which 

 St. Mary's Church now stands. Here it formed a somewhat 

 acute angle, and afterwards described nearly an oval, till it 

 reached St. Michael's Church,t a little to the eastward of 

 which it turned by a sudden bend towards the Nith, and 

 terminated on the banks of that river, a little to the westward 

 of the place where the Infirmary now stands. 



This is the description which is left to us of the town 

 waU ; and though not very minute is sufficient to give us an 

 idea of its course. 



Near to St. Michael's Church was a port or gate, called the 

 South Port, leading to Caerlaverock and the south. A short 

 way to the south of the Ciystal Mount was the East Port ; 

 and on the north was the North Port. 



The Nith was bridged by the fine old bridge of Der- 

 vorgille, four hundred feet in length, or about a quarter 



* In a charter from the Crown, supposed by Chalmers, in his Caledonia, 

 vol. iii., p. 135, note, to have passed between the years 1175 and 1189, King 

 WiUiam grants to Joceline, Bishop of Glasgow, toftum ilium apud Dumfries 

 quod est inter vetus castcllum et ccclesiam. 



t Near to St. Michael's Church on the New Eoad is a wall which appears 

 to be a portion of the old Toyni Wall. 



