Scottish Life in the 17TH Century. 281 



chroniclers do not mention, what we know, however, to have 

 been the fact, that the business of many classes of tradesmen 

 was conducted in little wooden booths which were set out on 

 the High Street for display of their wares on market days. 

 Many of the houses, I fancy, would be entirely of wood, for we 

 know that on several occasions, one of them being about 1598, 

 the town suffered severely from fire ; but we have on old dwelling- 

 houses in the High Street dates on stones going back to 1604.''" 

 The old Turnpike House, built in the seventeenth century bv 

 Sharpe of Hoddam, the sheriff clerk of Dumfries, and occupied 

 during his last years by the notorious Grierson of Lagg, was 

 known by way of distinction as " Hoddam's stone house." 

 The proprietor of Hoddom owned also the adjoining house, 

 which was of wood, and on the site of which the building now 

 known as the Commercial Hotel was erected some time before 

 the visit of Prince Charlie. Regarding the method of building 

 and the materials employed, we get a local glimpse in Mr 

 Colville's " Byeways of History." "At Canonbie, 1769, the 

 owner prepares the materials — clay mixed with straw — summons 

 his neighbours for a day's darg (work) at daubing, who come 

 with victuals at their own cost, and setting cheerfully to work 

 complete the house before nightfall. At Dornock, Annan, 

 1792, all the houses in the village, save the manse and two 

 others, were of mud and thatch. I have easily pushed mv 

 walking stick into the front wall of one of these houses. Thev 

 are still common at Gretna Green." So says Mr Colville; and 

 the statement agrees with that in a well-known letter written by 

 Mr Maxwell of Munches, that " there was almost no lime used 

 for building in Dumfries, except a little shell-lime made of 

 cockle-shells, burned at Colvend," and that, "in 1740, when 

 Provost Bell built his house, the under storey was built with 

 clay, and the upper storeys with lime brought from Whitehaven 

 in dryware casks." The Old Bridge was the only means of 

 crossing the Xith, except by fords, and the town was deprived 

 even of it for some time. Great part of the bridge was carried 

 away by a spate in the year 1620; and in the absence of a 

 Devorgilla or a Miss M'Kie, the burgesses had at their own 

 charges to rebuild it. An Act of Parliament of the period sets 

 forth that this was a work so herculean as to be " maist incredible 



* On the skew-stone of a three-storey building in the Standard Close, 

 High Street, date and initials are carved as follows : — 



1604 

 P T 

 M A 



In the front wall of the Hole-in-the-Wa' Inn, High Street, which is in the 

 line of the old "Mid Raw," is a marriage stone bearing the date 1620. 

 The small hou.se at the Maxwelltown end of the Old Bridge, on the south 

 side, and partly resting upon it, was built in or very shortly before 1660. 



