The Market Cross of Dumfries. 203 



accusation of selling short measure. .This explanation, however, 

 is given with considerable diffidence, as it hardly seems an offence 

 likely to have been committed by a Notary Public as we know 

 James M'Caule to have been. 



The Markets. 



At the time of which we write the markets were all held 

 around the Cross. " It is statuit and ordaint that all the creimis 

 [booths] be set fra the mercat corce vii futts and that na pynnes 

 nor holis be maid neir the said mercat corce under the parrell of 

 vii sh[illings] during this zear."^ Only freemen of the burgh 

 were allowed to set up proper booths. " Na vnfreman," says an 

 act, " be lycent to sett vpe ony cremis vpone the cawsa or mercat 

 sted bot onie wt burd stule or benk nor that they be fund selland 

 na stabillit geir conforme to the actis of parliament.'"' The sale 

 of staple products was one of the privileges of royal burghs. 



Some idea of the variety and positions of the markets at this 

 time can be gathered from the following: "The qlk day the said 

 provest and balleis and counsell vnderstanding that it is wery 

 necessarie and ane greit commone weill for this burght and the 

 Inhabitants of this burght that the mercat vnderwryttin be trans- 

 portit and kepit as followis That is to say the schone [shoe] 

 mercat and ledder [leather] mercat be on the waist [west] syd of 

 the cawsaw foranent vmqle Adame Kent's tenement and John 

 Rigis'. [These were on the south of the New Wark which stood 

 in what is now Queensberry Square.] Item the salt mercat syt 

 thence downe anent the provest's [Archibald M'Brair] and Dauid 

 Raa's tenements the lyme mercat to be fra Dauid Raa doune to 

 Jhone Carruthers elder the hucsters to be plasit betui-x the gutter 

 of calsay and Arche Welcheis forge vpone the vtermost sydes of 

 the Kingis streit and the body of the haill streit to be fre for 

 passage of the Kingis legeis and the herring mercat and fysche 

 mercat to be at the fysche corce. And that nane of the saids 

 mercats cum vpone the Kingis commone streit bot betuix the 

 frontell therof and the housses Reservand the Kingis streit to be 

 fre. And thir mercat steds to be keypit be all manner of per- 

 .sonis fre and vnfre vnder the paine of viii sh[illings] for the first 



3. Burgh Court Books, 17, v., 1575. .i 



4. Op. cit., 3, X., 1576. 



