256 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 head of Friars’ Vennel to 
Catstrand, a mile in length. Many of the names then common 
continue in use, 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 acomb. 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 Rebellion of 1715 ; the Prison or Pledge-house, which 
stood on the north side of Union Street, and was built at the 
King’s command and the town’s expense in 1583 or 1585, 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 Arms of Scotland and others, and the date 1583 or 1585. 
