Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.
171
petency in connexion with the civil business of the
county, have adopted the town, either from choice
or from convenience, as their place of residence, and
contributed not a little to give it features of elegance
or polish. So long ago as 1764, it became supplied
with excellent spring-water by conveyance through
leaden pipes ; it has not failed, of course, to provide
itself with the modern luxury of gas-light ; and as to
other appliances of convenience and comfort, it has
them in a style of keeping with these.
The western and southern sides of the town are
formed by two streets, at right angles with each
other, both of which, very absurdly, bear the name
of High-street. From a point on the bank of the
Dee, 200 yards west of a sudden debouch of the
river from a southerly to a westerly course, High-
street runs due south over a distance of 275 yards ;
and it then, while sending a slight elongation west-
ward, runs due east over a distance of 400 yards.
At a distance of about 130 yards from the south-
ward line of High-street, Castle-street runs parallel
with it and to the east of it, from nearly the river
side to the eastward line of High-street. Union-
street connects the parallel thoroughfares nearly at
their middle, in the manner of the connecting
stroke between the limbs of the letter H. Going
off from the north end of Castle-street, at an ob-
tuse angle of about 55 or 60 degrees, Cuthbert-
street runs in a direction north-east by east over
a distance of 400 yards. Intersecting this street
obliquely, about two-thirds way from its commence-
ment at Castle-street, St. Mary's-street stretches a
brief space northward, leading the way to Tongue-
land-bridge, and sends off an unedificed thorough-
fare southward to intersect the eastern High-street,
and afterwards fork into roads respectively to St.
Mary's Isle and to Dundrennan. Somewhat parallel
with this line to the east of it, but bending in the
form of a small segment of a circle, runs Millburn-
street, extending from the eastern termination of
High-street, to a point 650 yards to the north,
where, near the entrance of a small brook into the
Dee, are a mill and a tannery. All the streets,
with the exception of the last and of High-street,
possess more or less regularity of aspect, and con-
sist simply of continuous lines of edifiees. But
Millburn-street has a sort of suburban or village
character, and is sometimes spoken of, though in-
correctly, as if it were not compact with the town.
High-street, on the other hand, wants a strictly
Hiodern character, and is winged all the way along
both sides of both its lines with " ciosses," or
narrow brief alleys. Yet, in front, it has many
good houses, some handsome shops, and several
public buildings ; and in the rear it has little gar-
dens, encompassed with neat walls, and sending oc-
casionally up an ornamental tree; so that, altogether,
it produces a pleasing effect.
Sixty or seventy yards south of the angle made by
the two lines of High-street stands the burgh aca-
demy, a capacious and elegant structure, containing,
in addition to its proper accommodations, a large
room occupied by a public subscription-library. At
the west end of the east and west High-street,
looking down the north and south High-street,
are the old jail and a spire, — the latter a conspi-
cuous object, and the former both a large and a
curious one. In front of the old jail stands the
market-cross, purporting, from an inscription on it,
to have been erected in 1504. On the opposite side
of the same line of High-street, but 70 or 80 yards to
the east, are the new jail and the county-hall, edi-
fices erected in 1816, and of very creditable appear-
ance. Directly opposite them is — what becomes
noticeable in a place like Kirkcudbright — a brewery.
On the bank of the river, at the north end of Castle-
street, and looking along that thoroughfare, stands
the neat and capacious parish-church. In High-
street is the meeting-house belonging to the United
Secession, — a building of agreeable aspect.
A little west of the town, very near the river, are
some mounds surrounded by a deep fosse, the re-
mains of a very ancient fortified castle. The tide
probably flowed round it in former times, and filled
the fosse with water. The castle — now vulgarly
called Castledykes, but known in ancient writings
as Castlemains — belonged originally to the Lords of
Galloway, when they ruled the province as a regality
separate from Scotland; and seems to have been
built to command the entrance of the harbour.
Coming into the possession of John Baliol as suc-
cessor to the Lords of Galloway, it was, for some
time, during the war of 1300, the residence of Ed-
ward I. and his queen and court ; and passing into
the hands of the Douglases, on the forfeiture of
Edward Baliol, it remained with them till 1455,
when their crimes drew down upon them summary
castigation, and in that year was visited by James II.
when on his march to crush their malign power.
Becoming now the property of the Crown, it offered,
in 1461, a retreat to Henry VI. after his defeat at
Towton, and was his place of residence while his
queen Margaret visited the Scottish queen at Edin-
burgh. In 1508, it was the temporary residence of
James IV., who, while occupying it, was hospitably
entertained by the burgh ; and, next year, by a char-
ter, dated at Edinburgh, it was gifted, along with
some attached lands, to the magistrates for the com-
mon good of the inhabitants. The land, though
alienated, at some period, by the corporation, and
though not within the burgh previous to the grant,
continues to be subject to burgage tenure Not
very many paces west of the parish-church, or be-
tween the northern terminations of Castle-street and
High-street, stands the ruinous but venerable form
of the castle of Kirkcudbright, built in the year 1 582
by Thomas Maclellan of Bombie, the ancestor of
the Lords Kirkcudbright. It is a strong, massive.
Gothic building, lifting its upper work so boldly into
view as to give, conjointly with the towers of the
jail, distinctiveness and markedness of feature to the
burghal landscape ; and, at the time when it was
reared, it must have been a splendid, as it is still
a spacious edifice. — At comparatively very recent
date, broad vestiges existed of town fortification.
At a time when the town consisted chiefly of a single
street running up from the harbour, it appears to
have been surrounded by a wall and a deep ditch, the
latter filled from the flowing tide ; and it had at its
two ends, strong gates, which, little more than 50
years ago, were pulled down to make way for new
houses. An English party who marched against the
town in 1547, in the stupid warfare about the mar-
riage-treaty between Mary and Edward VI., narrate
that as they approached " Kirkobrie, they who saw
us coming barred their gates, and kept their dikes,
for the town is diked on both sides, with a gate to
the waterward, and a gate on the over end to the
fellward," — and that, in consequence, English force
was repelled by Scotch precaution.
Kirkcudbright has never been the seat of any
considerable manufacture or trade. Hector Boece,
indeed, describes it as, in his day, " ane rich town,
full of merchandise ;" but he seems either to have
been totally misinformed, or to have, amid the ac-
tionless penury of his age, reckoned that " riches"
and "merchandise" which, in the present stirring
and productive era, would be esteemed only the snug
competency and the village trade of a homely huck-
ster. During the disturbed and semi-anarchical pe-