The Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries. 23 



pure, free, and jterpetual gift all and whole my lands and tene- 

 ments of Newton as underwritten with pertinents lying in the 

 Burgh of Dumfries in the street leading from the gate of the Minor 

 Friars to the bridge and water of Nyth, on the south part of the 

 same street. (Transumpt of Gift, Town Charter Room.) The 

 inclusion of the name of James IV., who fell at the battle of 

 Flodden in 1513, in this charter of 1519 is an indication of the 

 deep and lasting impression that untoward event " When the 

 flowers of the forest were a' wede away " had made on the 

 nation. 



Irish Street claims a word of remark. In the sixteenth cen- 

 tury in the above writ it is called Cialloway Gate, and in others 

 Irish Gate. The people of Galloway being Irish, the terms may 

 have been regarded in their eyes as synonymous. The street 

 extended from the Xewton southwards to the town proper, and its 

 length marks aj)proximately the distance between the old town 

 and the new. This southern position of the town, it may be 

 observed, appears to have a bearing on the purpose of the bridge, 

 which, being built not opposite the town, but considerably further 

 north, and exactly opposite the Friary, had evidently some special 

 connection with the latter. This was the longest, most ancient, 

 and finest bridge in Scotland, which had in the sixteenth century 

 borne the traffic of an important thoroughfare over the river Nith 

 for four hundred \ears, and was destined to continue to do so for 

 two hundred and thirty years more before relief and rest came 

 to it through the provision of a substitute. It still retained the 

 full number of nine arches, and extended eastwards in length quite 

 up to the present Brewery Street. 



Immediatelv south of the east end of the bridge there Avas a 

 water mill called the " Sandbed Mill,'" which belonged to the 

 vicar of the Parish Church. It was acquired by the town, and 

 continued in use until about 1680. A culvert pierced the land- 

 stool of the bridge providing for the passage of the water to 

 actuate the Mill. According to a minute of the Town Council of 

 28th May, 1522, the water was conveyed by a " watergang," which 

 extended from the " moit " (moat) to the sand beds. The old weir 

 or dam crossed the river near the Moat, and a little lower down 

 there was a ford called the stakeford, the approximate position of 

 which is suggested by the existing Stakeford Mill. At this point 

 the water is now of some depth, being held back by the weir which 



