DUMFRIES, the capital of the above mentioned county, a handsome town, situated on a ridge or rising ground on the north-east side of the river Nith, about 10 miles above where it falls into Solway Frith, in N. Lat. 55. 8. 30. Long. W. of Greenwich Observatory, 3. 56. Its ancient name, it is said by some of the Scotch historians, was Cotiae; but on what authority we cannot tell. Its present name appears to have been derived partly from its situation, and partly from the monastery of Grey Friars that formerly stood near the head of the street called the Friar-venual; the kitchen of which is all that now remains; being only a corruption of Drum friars, or "the eminence of the friary;" and accordingly, till within these 40 or 50 years, it was always spelt Drumfriars, and not Dumfries, as it is now for the sake of greater softness. Besides the pleasantness of its situation on the side of a beautiful winding river, it is surrounded on all sides with one of the
finest and best cultivated sheets of dale country that one can any where meet with, and the prospect from it terminated at the distance of a few miles, by a continued chain of hills, forming altogether one of the grandest natural amphitheatres perhaps in Britain. There was anciently a strong castle at the south end of the town belonging to the Cummings, lords of Badenoch, of which there are now no remains. Another castle was afterwards built at the north-west end, which was taken down about 70 years ago. On the north-east side of it, at some little distance, are the ruins of a chapel built by K. Robert Bruce, and endowed for a number of priests to say mass for the repose of the soul of Sir Christopher Seton his brother-in-law, who was taken prisoner by Edward I. at Loch-Urr, and hanged at this place. It is now only employed as a burying place for suicides. It is not certain at what period Dumfries was erected into a royal borough; but it must have been before the middle of the eleventh century, as a grave-stone was discovered some time ago bearing the date of 1079, and mentioning the person buried under it to have been a merchant and burgess of the town: and that it was a place of consequence in the beginning of the fourteenth century, is evident from this circumstance, that Edward II. called the elites of Scotland to meet there in the year 1307. In the above mentioned monastery too, K. Robert Bruce killed his rival Cumming lord of Badenoch, with the assistance of James Lindsay and Roger Kirkpatrick, on the 5th of February 1305. As to the present state of the town, the houses are well built and commodious, the streets spacious, open, and neatly paved. It has two very elegant churches, an episcopal chapel with a fine little organ, besides three meeting-houses belonging to different descriptions of sectaries; a tobbooth; a council-chamber; a trades hall; a meal-market; a strong prison; a correction-house; a large hospital; an infirmary, with apartments for insane patients; a narrow bridge of 9 arches over the river, said to have been built by one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Alan lord Galloway. A large village, called the Bridge-end, stands on the opposite side, and is within the stewardry of Kirkcudbright. The assizes for the county, and for the shire of Galloway and stewardry of Kirkcudbright, are held in the town twice a year. It is also the place for holding the sheriff and commissary courts, the quarter-sessions of the peace, and the courts of the commissioners of supply. It is governed by a provost, three bailies, a dean of guild, and a town-council, composed of merchants and the concever and deacons of the incorporated trades, of which there are seven, viz. square-men, smiths, weavers, tailors, shoemakers, skimmers, and butchers; all of whom are chosen into their respective offices at Michaelmas annually. The trades got from king James VI. in one of his journeys to England, a small silver tube, like a pistol barrel, called the silver gun, with his royal licence to shoot for it every year. At that festival they all appear in arms, and march out of the town under their respective colours, to some convenient place, where they shoot at a mark; and the person that hits or shoots nearest to it, returns to town, marching at the concever's right hand, with the silver gun tied to his hat with ribbons; after which they conclude the day with a social entertainment. The town has a weekly
weekly market on Wednesday, with two annual fairs, the first on the Wednesday on or next after the 13th of February, and the other on the Wednesday on or next after the 25th of September. At these fairs vast numbers of horses and black cattle are sold; and no town in Scotland is better provided with all sorts of butcher-meat in their season. But though well situated for fuel at a cheap rate, it has only two manufactures, one for stockings and the other for cottons; but the latter only in its infancy. Its foreign trade for many years has only consisted in timber, iron, and other articles for home consumption. It gives the title of Earl to the chief of the family of Crichton; and is the seat of a presbytery and provincial synod. It contains about 6000 inhabitants.