28 The Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries. 



feet in width, the nave being sixty, the choir forty, and the rood 

 loft ten feet from west to east. The principal door is in the south 

 wall under the rood loft, and between the nave and the choir. A 

 smaller external door pierces the north wall at the west end, and 

 a door near the east end of the south wall gives access to an ad- 

 joining chamber, the sacristy. Although the conventual build- 

 ings have disappeared, broken-off fragments of walls attached to 

 the church show where they stood, namcl_\-, at the south side of 

 the church. 



Proceeding to the enquiiw regarding the situation and distri- 

 bution of the Grey Friars Convent of Dumfries, it will be found, 

 as already indicated, that the building stood within the area en- 

 closed by " Our Papal walls," the south boundary of which cor- 

 responded with the north side of Friars' Vennel. This area con- 

 stituted the close or precincts of the convent, and was usually 

 open to the public. A similar arrangement, but on a larger scale, 

 may be seen at Xewabbey. Adopting the north side of the 

 Vennel to serve as a base on which to reconstruct the plan, the 

 charters of the lands furnish definite e\idence of the position of 

 the church relative thereto. The south wall of the church, it will 

 be found, fronted towards the Vennel, l)Ut retired some distance 

 back from the street, and a tapering garden intervened. This 

 garden was divided in its length into two portions bv a passage, 

 near the centre, which led from the street across the garden, up to 

 the principal door of the church. Tn the vear 1558, John 

 Richardson and his wife, Elizabeth M'Kinnel, acquired the 

 western part of the garden, described in their charter as having a 

 frontage of twenty-eight ells (86 ft. 6 in.) and a Avidth of nineteen 

 ells (58 ft. 9 in.). It was bounded " bv the s<iut'hern wall of otu" 

 said Friars' Church on the north side."' In the same way the east 

 portion was acquired in 1559 by John Marshall, and the lot is de- 

 scribed as having a frontage extending to twenty-six ells in length 

 (80 ft.) and a width of eleven ells (34 ft.), " bounded bvour church 

 choir on the north." The position of the church is thus made 

 perfectly clear and free of ambiguity. Its distance from the street 

 across the west garden was fifty-eight feet, and across the east 

 garden the distance was thirty-four feet, the difference being due 

 to the orientation of the church. It will be observed that the 

 principal door was in the south wall immediately east, according 

 to one charter of the aisle of St. John the Baptist, Avhile another 



