TopoGRAPHv or Dumfries. 183 



September, 1555, calls it, and tliat St. Michael's Church also 

 lay on the entrance from the south. 



Tho School. 



The School of Dumfries was in existence in 1330; Master 

 John, rector of the Schools of Dronfres, made payment that 

 year of the bury^h taxes. ''^ Its position is clearly defined in 

 1543. It was the first building behind the High Street on the 

 north side of Chapel Street, and it gave to the latter yet 

 another name, the Schoolhousehill.^o 



Raids: Fires. 



In these appearances there is evidence of growth; yet it 

 would be slow, for the condition of the country was deplorable. 

 The War of Independence eliminated the racial struggle in 

 the south-west. The strategic position of Dumfries was 

 gone, if indeed it had not previously passed away with the 

 adherence of the east of Galloway to the cause of Comyn and 

 Balliol early in the great struggle. From 1333 to 1357 Dum- 

 fries was lulward Balliol's and his English Sovereign's. It 

 would recover during the later years of David II., but it 

 suffered again and again from raids. It was burnt in 1384, 

 141 5, and possibly in 1483. There was a considerable fire 

 in 1504,5^ and it suffered from the auld enemy in 1547, 1549, 

 and 1570; it was, in the words of Lord Herries, " oft burned 

 and harried." 



Plague. 



It was decimated also by plague, its marshy surroundings 

 and relaxing climate rendering it particularly liable to such 

 attacks. In 1439 " the pestilence but mercy ffor thar tuke it 

 nane that ever recoverit, bot thai diet within xxiiij hours, "^2 

 is said to have originated in the town, and by the severity 

 of the regulations the Burgh Records bear grim testimony to 

 the virulence of the pest. Those affected were sent forth to 

 the " muir " for thirty days, fifteen until they were 

 " clengeit " and fifteen thereafter; their houses were shut up, 

 and intercourse with the inhabitants was forbidden under pain 

 of death. 53 Some place names beside the Black Loch may 



