The Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries. 21 



An important work of t\v<i large volumes, entitled "The 

 Scottish Grey Friars," recently published, of which Mr William 

 Moir Bryce is the author, contains in the first volume a history of 

 the Scottish Grey Friars, including the Dumfries establishment, 

 and in the second are the relative charters and writs. These 

 ^•o]umes coxer the whole story of the Friars from first to last, 

 and vi\-idly portray the origin, the fortunes, misfortunes, and 

 endings of the several branches of the Order in Scotland ; and it is 

 to these I am indebted for bringing within my reach the charters 

 and other information on which the following sketch is based. 

 Mr Shirley has also fa\"oured me with numerous extracts of minor, 

 but locally interesting, details from the almost unreadable records 

 of the Town Council and Burgh Court, commencing 1506 and 

 onwards, with some intervals. 



With such materials for our guidance we will first contrast 

 the present state of Friars' Vennel and its surroundings, where it 

 may be presumed the Friary was situated, with the conditions 

 prevailing in the sixteenth centurv, as pictured in the charters 

 and writs alluded to. All trace of the historic church has long 

 since disappeared, and only the name of the street and occasional 

 disclosures of remains of burials inferring the existence of a 

 cemetery give indication of the site of the ancient foundation. 

 The aspect of Friars' Vennel is that <if an old street. It is closely 

 built, narniw, unequal in width, l)ent like a bow in its course, and 

 the skyline is singularlv uneven. The existing buildings are, 

 howe\er, wholly modern, and, with the exception of the vener- 

 able bridge, shorn of three of its bows, there is not a vestige of 

 antiquity within view. All the land n<jrthwanls of the vennel, up 

 to the bank of the ri\er, with the exception of the small Common 

 called " The (ireensands,'' is now built upon. Buccleuch Street 

 and Bridge Street were formed following on the opening of the 

 New Bridge in 1795, and Castle Street, George Street, Charlotte 

 Street, and Gordon Street have been built between that time and 

 the present, a j)eriotl of a little over a hundred years. These 

 streets display the characteristics of the modern town. 



Going back some three hundred and fifty years to the middle 

 of the sixteenth centurx , this northern area was, with the excep- 

 tion of Friars' Vennel, i^ractically void of buildings, and in regard 

 to the Vennel itself — thought to be the oldest part of the town — 

 it may occasion surprise to learn that the greater part of it, 



