210 The Market Cross of Dumfries. 



with lead, " which will much more tend to the decorment of the 

 place then to the petitioner's advantage." The Comicil and 

 heritors allow him the two feet on either side, north and south, 

 providing he maintains the battlement (the style of which, it may 

 be noted, was adopted by the Council for the battlement of the 

 Midsteeple) and roof against wind and water, and pays an extra 

 feu duty, and that " thir presents be noe homologatione to Mr 

 M'Gouns nor thair predecessors and authors rights to the said 

 shope." The last sentence shows that some claim had been 

 made to the property, which the Council disputed. A charter 

 giving effect to the above arrangement was granted on the 26th 

 September. 



No mention is made here of the pillar of the Cross. As this 

 immemorial object was at last to disappear, it was perhaps as 

 well not to remind one of its existence. Xo mention also is 

 made of a middle shop on the top of the Cross, with an entrance 

 from the back or west side, described by Robert Edgar in his 

 MS. "Introduction to the History of Drumfreis," written circa 

 1746. "The Cross Avas," he says, "before 1690 or 1691 an 

 house about Thirty feet in length having to the front [i.e., the 

 east side] three shops the floors a foot or two sunk under the 

 Street and above the middle shop an arch of stone, and then on 

 the back part a shop which entered in upon this stone floor and 

 the roof to the extent of eight or ten feet. Above, this back shop 

 had appended on both sides .spars of timber and sclated to nigh 

 four feet of the Casaway or street." This description is quite 

 clear, and as far as it goes is in accordance with the details we 

 have gathered from the Burgh Court Books. It therefore seems 

 likely that sometime before 1690 such a shop was built. 

 Thomas M'Gown, after the Council had conceded to his request, 

 built up the two sides to the height of another storey, and thereby 

 six shops instead of four were obtained. Edgar tells us that 

 Thomas M'Gown had, in the old building, the south shop, and 

 his brothers Alexander and John the north and mid and back 

 shops respectively. Thomas was tutor of his niece Margaret, 

 and Mr John's man of business. Alexander sold his north shop- 

 to Wm. Copland, of Colliston, afterwards Provost, who, says 

 Edgar, "strenuously opposed " the proposal of the Council to 

 make the Cross the site of the Midsteeple. Edgar further says 

 that " for several vears the lead-covered roof did not repell 



