The Market Cross of Dumfries. 209 



and therefter to be broght to the theivis hole and ly ther 48 hours 

 ffor bemg most scandalously drunk and abuising the mag[ist]rats 

 and John Craik and George Baptie by scandalous speiches and 

 therefter to be conveyed out of the toun by the off[ice]r with cer- 

 tificatioune if ever he come to the toune again and be found guiltie 

 of the lyk transgression to be whiped.''^^ We seem nowadays to 

 have forgotten entirely the ancient method of punishment by 

 public shame and obloquy which for many centuries filled a promi- 

 nent place in our civil and ecclesiastical codes. In the form of 

 which we have given two instances it was mental rather than 

 physical ; it cost the civic body nothing, and wife and children did 

 not grow an)' thinner by having to pay the wrong-doer's fine or by 

 his absence in jail. No doubt it often had a salutary effect, but 

 its end probably came from the increasing difficulty of keeping 

 public order. It would also be much more effective in a stable 

 community, intensely familiar and keenly reminiscent, than in the 

 town of to-day, when easy means of travel slacken familiarity 

 and render obliteration of the past no difficult matter. 



The Cross appears to have remained practically unaltered 

 for over a century. On February 19, 1677, "the Council 

 appoynts and ordeans the thesr to pay to Alexr. Thom the 

 Sowme of Twentie eight libs Scots qlk wt the sowme of Thre- 

 score twelve libs formerly peyit to him makes vp in haiil the 

 sowme of Ane hundred libs Scots for his repairing of the Stan- 

 dard of the cross and putting of ane sundayell theron." 



We now come to the last considerable change in the struc- 

 ture of the Market Cross. This portion has already been 

 treated fully, ^^ and I shall only recount the matter briefly. On 

 August 22nd, 1690, Thomas M'Gown, merchant, and afterwards 

 Provost of Irvine, a son of the Rev. Alexander M'Gown, minister 

 of Mouswald, and a descendant of the original feuer of the Cross, 

 supplicated the Council for permission to throw down the north 

 and south walls of the Cross, " not onlie for the inlargement of 

 the tuo shops under the same iff they w"old allow him tuo foot of 

 ground more on either syde thairof for that effect But also that 

 he may have ane Shop above either of the said tuo laigh shops." 

 He proposed to put a battlement on the walls and cover the roof 



18. Town Council Minutes, 26, vii., 1670. 



19. Transaction D. & G. N. H. & A. Society, 1900-1, pp. 85-90. 



