The Market Cross of Dumfries. 211 



damage by rain or snow, and thus these persons [? the Council's] 

 rights are homologate and confirmed." 



It is interesting to note that Mr John M'Gown's son was 

 Alexander M'Gown, writer in Edinburgh, sometime called " of 

 Meikleknox," whose daughter Agnes married Robert Corsane of 

 Meikleknox, son of the Rev. Peter Rae and Agnes Corsane, and 

 is thus an ancestor of Lord Loreburn. 



The Market Cross had now assumed more or less exactly the 

 form in which we now know it. There remains to be mentioned 

 the connecting of it with the Midsteeple. This took place in 

 1788. In August the Minutes state that " it is observed by some 

 members of the councill that the most convenient place for keep- 

 ing the water engine is betwixt the cross and the steeple," and 

 "a little house " was erected there for that purpose. The clos- 

 ing of the passage was protested against by nineteen of the 

 inhabitants, among whom Ave notice Robert Threshie, another 

 ancestor of Lord Loreburn. The main plea put forward bv 

 these petitioners was " the Inconvenience to the Inhabitants of 

 the back of the Steeple on Fair or other public day, they can 

 neither get round to the Market to buy provision by the Cross on 

 account of the merchant stalls, nor by the Courthouse stair on 

 account of the gardeners and blacksmiths. In short, they must 

 travel as far up as Mr Wilson, the ironmonger's shop, and as far 

 down as the Coffee House, and how difficult this must be in the 

 midst of such a crowd as generally attend on these occasions A'our 

 honours can easily imagine." The petition is endorsed " re- 

 fused. "^^ I have now only to note that about the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century the two north shops were made into one, 

 when Mr Robert Dickson was the owner, and that in 1846 the 

 south shop was used as the Police Office, being conveniently 

 adjacent to the " saut box " in the Midsteeple. 



The measurements of the Market Cross buildings are now 18 

 feet 11 inches broad by 37 feet 3 inches, plus 7 feet 6 inches (the 

 latter being the passage) long. That is one foot broader and four 

 feet longer than in 1575. 



In its history the Market Cross of Dumfries probably occu- 

 pies a unique position, though that is due more to the business 

 acumen of the civic fathers of the burgh than to their sense of 



20. Burgh Charter Room. 



