186 Topography of Dumfries. 



threshing, drying, and steeping the grain. We can still 

 trace the lines of these houses and the depth of the yards. 

 The houses lay along the west side of the High Street and St. 

 Michael Street, the east side of Queensberry Street, and the 

 south side of English Street. The yards extended respectively 

 to Irish Street, the river, Loreburn Street, and Shakespeare 

 Street. Access to the barns and yards was obtained natur- 

 ally by passages at the sides of the houses (for between each 

 rig was a waste piece of ground) and at the ends of the yards. 

 In these side passages we have the origin of our closes, ^^ and 

 in the passages at the ends the beginning of such streets, 

 still unable to throw off their original characters, as Loreburn 

 Street, Shakespeare Street, and Irish Street. In the i6th 

 century Loreburn Street was the passage at the *' yaird- 

 heidis," Shakespeare Street and Irish Street were passages 

 " under the yairds," and in the i8th century they were all the 

 " Barnraws." All these streets were originally back en- 

 trance lanes, and, as a glance at the plan will show, encircled 

 almost entirely the i6th century burgh. Queensberry Street 

 would probably be the main exit north-eastwards, but in the 

 1 6th century it was already the " bak raw," and in popular 

 parlance still bears the name of the " Back Street." 



The Mid Row. 



We have to account for the peculiar block of houses 

 between North Queensberry Street^Sa and High Street. In the 

 1 6th century it consisted of three rows of dwellings, having a 

 line of buildings, with a ]ane,55b in the centre, and known as the 

 " mid raw. "56 The solitary remnant of this row is the old 

 hostelry, " The Hole i' th' Wa'," dated 1620. A block of 

 houses built with the gables to the streets and the passages 

 between them closed by gates was more easily defended than 

 isolated or outward-facing dwellings, and this compact block 

 may have been of that nature. 



The New Wark. 



There is the more inducement to think so when we remem- 

 ber that south of it, in Queensberry Square, and separated 

 from the Midraw by a narrow passage was a very strong stone 



