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TRANSACTIONS. 243 
his examination of the records preserved in that building. These 
documents include the Council Minutes from 1678 to the present 
year, and a number of important “dispositions.” The lecturer 
expressed his surprise that the older Council records, from which 
much curious information could be gleaned, had never been tran- 
scribed and published. Reterring to the state of the burgh two 
hundred years ago, he said: The poverty of Annan in the closing 
years of the seventeenth century seems to have been great. One 
privilege, that of collecting customs, was enjoyed by the town, 
having been granted by Charles II.to recompense the burghers for 
their losses during the civil wars which raged in the time of his 
father. A ferry boat on the river was “pairte of the common 
good,” but the rent yielded by it seldom amounted to 40 pounds 
Scots per annum. The appearance of the town shewed its insig- 
nificance. The houses were small and of rude construction, while 
the church was a plain building without a steeple. The sanitary 
condition of the burgh was unsatisfactory, though the magistrates 
now and again issued orders for the cleansing of the street, and 
fined persons found guilty of indulging in practices detrimental to 
the public health. The inhabitants being “sudden and fierce in 
quarrel,” fights and aggravated assaults were common. In 1686 
the schoolmaster was fined ten pounds Scots for fighting, and in 
1700 the town clerk was condemned to pay fifty pounds Scots “ for 
a blood and ryott committed by him upon Robert Johnstone, son 
to the deceased David Johnstone, sometime bailie.” Women not 
infrequently figured in assault cases, “ ryving of hair” being one of 
the favourite amusements of the gentler sex. The good old sport 
of tossing in a blanket was not unknown in Annan, as is shown by 
an entry, dated 1694, recording the infliction of a fine upon two 
men “for raising of an blanket and throwing of David Johnstone 
and Adam Johnstone to the ground.” If quarrelsome, the people 
were comparatively honest. At times a goose was stolen from the 
common, or peas and beans were taken from a neighbour's garden, 
but few serious cases of theft occurred. Offences against property 
were punished with more than the usual severity. In 1701 a 
servant maid, convicted of complicity in a theft of barley from her 
master’s barn, “ was ordained to be put in the stocks on Monday 
morning, and to continue there during the magistrates’ and 
Council's pleasure.” The court, considering it probable that the 
girl’s master would prove tender-hearted and refuse to give her up 
on the awful Monday morning, wisely appended to the sentence 
