Transacticns 23 



approximate estimate of the extent of such fund might be very 

 difficult. On the other hand, the following stray reference seems 

 to stand alone in the record, although it serves to remind us of 

 the liabilities to which the Bridge, the Mill, the great grange, or 

 " Barnsbuith," and their surroundings of " the Brigend of Dum- 

 fries," were constantly exposed in the nature of things : — 

 At Drumfries the 2Sth of May, 1521. 



"The Alderman, Baillies, and Community of Drumfries has 

 set to Thom Cunyngliame in heritage ane Mylshed with ane 

 Watergang distrinzeand fra the Moit to the Barnsbuith of tlie 

 Sandbeddis, payand thairfore zeirly 20s. If the Myll-stob does 

 ony skaith to the Sandbeddies, or to the Willies, the said INIill 

 (of the Sandbed) sail be distrenzit (for the damage)." 



As we understand this entry, we suppose the place-name of 

 the " Staikfuird " had been descriptive of some ford of stakes or 

 mill-dam barrier of the river Nith in that locality. The Staik- 

 fuird Mill, as one of the Mills of the College and Barony of 

 Lincluden, must once have been of no small importance. Of old 

 the eastern foreshore and bank of the river Nith, from the march 

 of the College lands of Nunholm downwards to the Bridge of 

 Nith, seem to have been in general described, in whole or in part, 

 as the ancient ecclesiastical lands of Dumfries : the haughs of the 

 vicinity of the river-bed and as far as the Staikfuird and Green- 

 sands being comprehended within the limits of " the Moitlands " 

 and " the Over-Haughs " as descriptive of such pasture grounds. 

 To the haughs there succeeded a general eastern foreshore of 

 sand and gravel levels of river bank, reaching beyond the bridge 

 and mill. This flat region, in virtue of its nature, was collectively 

 known as " The Sandbeds," which were singled out again dis- 

 tinctively as the Upper and Lower Sandbeds ; or, later, as the 

 Green and the "White Sands. Between the Friervennel and 

 " the Moit," and beyond, riverwards, there seems to liave been 

 little else than orchards, fields, and open spaces, with occasional 

 granges, or barns. At or about the northern verge of tlie Green- 

 sandbeds, and by the Staikfuird ford, the " water-gang " of the 

 " Old Sandl)ed Mill " had its origin in the Nith, flowing onward 

 through the said sandbeds until it supplied the mill and tanneries, 

 regaining the Nith somewhere beyond " the Newtown " quarter 

 of the burgli. Beyond the Brigend the mill-stream, or " water- 

 gang," intersected the great high road to Galloway as it crossed 



