Biggar and the House of Fleming

THE COMMERCE AND TRADE OF BIGGAR. 359
moved the piles of lead bars which for a long period formed a
marked feature in the High Street of the little town.
Besides the transmission of lead, a considerable number of
carriers from the south of Scotland passed every week through
Biggar on their way to and from the metropolis. Biggar was
one of their stages ; and on certain nights of the week, ranges
of well-laden carts, with a due portion of canine attendants,
were to be seen on the street. Biggar, standing on the great
highway from the south to Edinburgh, was visited by a con-
stant succession of travellers on foot or horseback, in gig or
chariot. Being the capital of a considerable district, extend-
ing from Tweedsmuir to Covington, and from Dolphinton to
Crawford, its markets and marts of commerce were frequented
by a considerable population, and thus its monotony was reliev-
ed, and its wealth increased. Biggar, neither in remote ages,
with the exciting presence of its feudal barons, nor in more
recent times, with its spirit, industry, and traffic, could there-
fore, with any fairness, be called a dull and lifeless community,
or was so " entirely cut off from the great world, and thrown
upon its own solitary reading and reflection," as some persons
have ventured to suppose.