Topography of Dumfries. 173 



" Kirk dyck,"26 while not far off were lands thai bore eccle- 

 siastical names, the X'icar's Meadow, the Arehdene Croft, 

 the Glebe Lands, and X'icarage Lands, and one near the town 

 of which we are still cognisant, the Clerkhill. These were 

 probably comprised in William the Lion's gift to Kelso 

 Abbey. Few buildings, except barns, appear upon them, 

 with the exception perhaps of the Clerkhill, until the i/lh 

 century, though the Kirkgate, within the port, was built up. 



The Old and New Faiths. 



In the 71I1 century, with St. Mungo, whose first seat in 

 Scotland as Bishop was at Hoddom, Christianity may have 

 come to the district and pagan festival woukl then be re- 

 placed by Christian rite. The latter would, in accordance 

 with the politic instructions of Gregory the Great, in all 

 probability be performed upon the same site as the former. 27 



May we imagine the picturesque procession of the older 

 faith, headed by its priests, winding with dance and song 

 and sacrifice from the little hamlet to the sacred grove at St. 

 Michael's, there to hail the returning sun and celebrate the 

 mysteries of spring ; or must we limit that vision to English 

 Street, the Braidmyre, and the Greystaneflat? Did the 

 Christian priest lead his people to celebrate a similar mystery 

 of resurrection at a new undesecrated shrine, and the Circle 

 round the Greystone sink peacefully from a centre of worship 

 to an abandoned place, haunted by demons and superstitiously 

 feared, as the new faith won its way among the people? 



Celt and Dane. 



Many times during these centuries warring Pict, Scot, 

 Angle, and Briton must have used the fords in the vicinity 

 o\er the Xith. The Danish raiders from Ireland found 

 entrance to Northumbria by the Solway, which bears their 

 nomenclature, 2S and settled in considerable numbers in Dum- 

 friesshire. One may conjecture the strength of the Lochar 

 Moss as a barrier by comparing the number of Scandinavian 

 place names on the eastern sidc^^ wMth their absence on the 

 western. On the latter, when not lowland Scots, the place 

 names are predominantly Celtic. ^^ Even later than the 



