1^56 Transactions. 



There is prefixed an address " To the Reader," from which 

 it may be inferred the MS. was intended for publication. The 

 names given to Dumfries, the origin of the town, and its situa- 

 tion, antiquity, and topography are treated of, but the work 

 may be regarded mainly as a disquisition on the constitution of 

 the Burgh and the administration of its affairs. 



I will submit a few of the topographical details. The main 

 street is described as extending from the liead of Friars' Vennel to 

 Catstrand, a mile in length. Many of the names then common 

 continue in nse, such as Friars' Vennel, Townhead, Fleshmarket 

 Street, and Whitesands. Others have given place to new names. 

 Irish Street was formerly known as West Barnraws, Shakespeare 

 Street as East Barnraws, Loreburn Street as North-east Barnraws, 

 and Queensberry Street as Mid Barnraw. The peculiar arrange- 

 ment of the numerous closes in the town is described as resembling 

 the teeth of a comb. They were on each side of the streets 30 or 

 40 feet apart, and led down to the inhabitants' houses, yards, and 

 barns. The streets are described as being well paved and free of 

 standing water. 



The public buildings belonging to the town were : — The Old 

 Tolbooth, now a bookbinder's workshop, situated opposite the 

 Midsteeple on the south side of Union Street, which was rebuilt 

 before the Eebellion of 1715 ; the Prison or Pledge-honse, which 

 stood on the north side of Union Street, and was built at the 

 King's command and the town's expense in 1.583 or 1.58.5, as ap- 

 peared by an inscription on the forewall ; the Midsteeple, built in 

 1707 ; and the New Church, built in 1727. The town also added 

 a north-west wing and a tower to the Old Church after the 

 Reformation. 



Previous to 1708 there were only two bells in the town — one 

 in St. Michael's Church, supposed to have belonged to Sweetheart 

 Abbey, and one over the Tolbooth, which had been gifted to the 

 town in 1443 by William Lord Carlyle in honour of St. Michael, 

 described as " a little clear sharp sounding bell." It is preserved 

 in the Observatory Museum. 



The Fish Cross stood in the High Street opposite English 

 Street ; and the site of the Market Cross was the centre of the 

 block of buildings north of and adjoining the Midsteeple. 



A great building, called the " New Wark," stood in the space 

 now called Queensberry Square, on the staircase of which were the 

 Royal Ai-ms of Scotland and others, and the date 1583 or 1585. 



