Topography of Dumfries. 179 



founded by St. Francis, professing poverty and preaching in 

 the \ernacular, had pushed its way northwards across the 

 border from Newcastle by Berwick and Roxburgh to Dum- 

 fries. The thriving town, in the person of some generous 

 donor, perhaps the Lady Dervorgilla, offered hospitaHty to 

 the Friars, and was found by them to be a suitable centre 

 for ministration and propaganda. •^^ The site for their Con- 

 vent and Church, their most important establishment in the 

 south of Scotland, was chosen with the usual discernment 

 on a beautiful and fertile spot, the brow of the hill to the 

 north of the burgh. On this elevation the plainly built 

 church with its low belfry must have been a notable object, 

 visible from all points. It overlooked on the west and north 

 the lo\ely curves of the river Nith to the Galloway hills 

 beyond, and on the south the lowly dwellings of the people.'**' 

 It is impossible for us to say how far removed from the 

 buildings of the town the Convent was when it was erected. 

 It is not unlikely that it was some, but not an inconvenient, 

 distance away. What we do know is that the line of its 

 southern boundary is that of the north side of Friars' Vennel, 

 which until 1793*^ ran up, broken only by a space in front of 

 the New Church, to St. Andrew Street. To Friars' Vennel 

 the houses from our market place gradually grew up in an 

 unbroken line. 



It is probable, indeed, that at no time in its history was 

 Dumfries, in comparison with its population and with other 

 Scottish towns, so prosperous, so full of activity and progress 

 as when, in 1264, Alexander III. gathered there his fleet and 

 received, under its threat, the submission of Magnus Olafson, 

 King of Man, when the latter undertook feudal tenure for 

 his kingdom by galley service, an early instance of Scottish 

 interest in sea power. To this period also belong those coins 

 bearing, on the reverse, the legend " Walter on Fres," which 

 are believed to have been minted in the town. ''2 



The History of the Castle. 



We may be certain that, with the rest of Scotland, Dum- 

 fries suffered from the War of Independence. The retention 

 of its ancient freedom was not achieved without great 



