20 Transactions. 
Another object of interest on these occasions was the passing 
of the Portpatrick mail coach, which used to leave the town at 
ten o'clock in the evening. It halted at the Post Office, at the 
top of Buccleuch Street, to take up the letter bags; and then, 
with sound of horn and flash of lamps, if the season was late, 
and trampling of hurrying steeds, it swept down the street, and 
disappeared in the darkness of the night, a passing vision of 
wonder and delight to the youthful imagination. 
A notable character in the burgh at this time was the ‘ town 
crier,” John Crosbie, who, I have been told, undertook the office 
more for the love of it than from any necessity. He was always 
neatly and comfortably dressed, and had a dignified and important 
air, which consorted well with his vocation. Being on friendly 
terms with an old lady, a relative of mine who resided in 
Buccleuch Street, he was in the habit of drawing up in front of 
her house, and after pealing his bell to invite attention, he would 
deliver the tidings he had to communicate in a loud and 
sententious manner, and concluding abruptly, would wheel about 
and proceed on his round. I have heard him announce the sale 
of salmon at the ‘fish cross” at sixpence the pound, a price 
unknown at the present day. 
Another frequenter of the streets, but of a very different type, 
was a poor haif-witted man named “Jamie Pagan.” He would 
be seen at times wandering aimlessly along, clad in garments 
which might have been borrowed from a ‘ potato bogle,” with a 
battered misshapen hat stuck on one side of his head. The 
children would sometime shout after him, but he was a harmless 
creature, and did not seem to mind them. 
Among the various shopkeepers whom I remember, and who 
as being public characters and worthy citizens I may name 
without offence, were Thomas Milligan, a tinsmith, usually known 
by the significant cognomen of “Tin Tam ;” his shop was near 
the “New Kirk ;’ John Anderson, the bookseller, in High 
Street, whose shop was the well-known resort of the /uterata of 
the town; Robert Watt, an ironmonger, who was located 
opposite the Midsteeple, and Andrew Montgomery, a popular 
baker, who was on the other side of the same Steeple. 
On the Plainstones were William Howat, a draper; John 
Sinclair, a bookseller; and Peter Mundell, a  tobacconist, 
who afterwards became laird of Bogrie, and attained to 
civic honours. Messrs Gregan & Creighton conducted an 
