44 Transactions. 



The discrepancy is accounted for by supposing the design of the 

 church to have been originally cruciform, in which case the bays 

 without arches would represent the joinings of the transepts at 

 the crossings. The side walls of the aisles, which were finished 

 with " cornices " and " rustic corners," were of equal height with 

 the middle walls ; and the roof was a triple one, being described 

 as consisting of "the middle roof," which covered the body of the 

 kirk, and " the two side roofs," which covered the aisles. In the 

 east end of the body of the kirk, which was a gable, were two 

 large windows, and there was a doorway in its west wall. Besides 

 the west doorway there were four others, two being in the south 

 wall and two in the north one ; and in each of the aisles there 

 were four windows, one being in the east end, two in the side wall, 

 and one in the west end. One of the west windows is described as 

 a large Venetian window of one hundred and seventeen lozenges. 

 Admission of additional light was provided for by means of sky- 

 lights placed in the roof. 



The foundations of the Old Church, /// situ, determine the 

 position and extent of the central division or " body of the kirk," 

 and its two sides and east end would correspond with those of the 

 central division of the existing church respectively, but its west end 

 was four feet short of the existing west wall. They also show that 

 the arcades stopped short of extending up to the east end of the 

 building. Other remains indicate that some of the pillars were 

 octagonal, that the arch-rings were chamfered, and that the gable 

 was of a high pitch and finished with a chamfered skew-stone, 

 having a cross on the apex. 



Attached to the west end of the church was a thick short 

 tower, the room within which was known as the " Session " or 

 "Session-house." Subscriptions Avere raised in the year 1740 for 

 " the raising and exalting of the Old Kirk steeple to bear some 

 resemblance to other spires," as it is expressed in a minute of the 

 Seven Trades, but the walls proving to be insufficient, the tower, 

 instead of being raised, was taken down, when the existing spire 

 was erected on the same site, against the end of the old church. 



Passing to the consideration of the interior fittings of the 

 church, of which we have some early glimpses in the Kirk-Session 

 books, and a very full " Abbreviate of the Minutes of the Commit- 

 tee of the Town Council, Heritors, and Kirk-Session of Dumfries, 

 appointed by them to regulate the seats in the said church," in 

 the year IG'JS. On 12th April of that year it was appointed " that 



