THE OLD PUR MARKET OP DUMPRIES. 
By Robert Service. 
AT what time the old Fur Market in Dumfries became a 
recognised institution is unknown, and the phrase " from 
time immemorial " may be set down as more or less aptly 
applying to its beginnings. In the earliest part of this century it * 
had reached large proportions, and was then regarded "as the 
first fur market in the United Kingdom " {Du7nfries Courier^ 
February 27th, 18 16). In Brewster's Cyclopedia it is said : 
— ''At the Horse Fair in February a larger quantity of hare- 
skins is annually disposed of than in any other town in Scot- 
land ; not fewer, on an average, than 30,000. And in Fleming's 
"British Animals" (1828, p. 21) there is another reference to 
the Fair: — "In Scotland the skins (of hares) are collected by 
itinerant dealers, and annually sold in the February market in 
Dumfries, sometimes to the amount of 30,000." And again in 
the " New Statistical Account" of Dumfries-shire (1835, p. 21) it 
is stated : — " At the Fair in February an incredible quantity of 
hareskins is purchased. The average number cannot be under 
30,000, and one year no less a sum than ;£6ooo is said to have 
been paid for that one article."^ These are all the references I can 
find in general literature in regard to this once famous trade, 
and the following statistics have been compiled from the market 
reports in the old files of the Dumfries Courier^ kindly placed 
at my disposal by the proprietors. Of course these figures have 
been prepared entirely from the naturalists' point of view, but at 
the same time, I may express a hope that the compilation may 
prove not altogether without interest to others than naturalists. 
Now-a-days the fur market is as unknown to the general 
populace of Dumfries as if it had never existed, altho' it survived 
until about 1874. For centuries previous to 1848, it was held on 
the usual stance in the open street, during the Candlemas Fair, 
1 This quotation bears a strong resemblance to the preceding one from 
Fleming. Very curiously, my copy of Fleming is the one formerly belonging 
to the late'Mr. Duncan, who wrote the article on Dumfries Parish for the 
Statistical Account. 
G 
