Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

Drolleries. 155
members of the corporation, seated in carriages, take the
lead. Then follow the trades, bearing banners. The
farm-servants of the neighbourhood, mounted, and dis-
playing from their bonnets a profusion of ribands, bring
up the rear. After a march of several miles the
procession returns to the Cross, whence the different
bodies proceed to their favourite taverns, to dedicate the
evening to social mirth.
The ceremonial of riding the marches at Dumfries, in
the seventeenth century, is thus described by Mr.
McDowall, in his history of the burgh : —
" Every 1st of October the magistrates, town-council,
incorporated trades, and other burgesses, assembled at
the market-cross or White Sands, and, having been duly
marshalled, proceeded with banners and music along
the far-stretching line which enclosed the property of
the burgh. Their course was first to the Castle, then
down Friar's Vennel, and along the green sands to
the Moat, at the head of the town. As a matter of
course, the cavalcade was accompanied by a crowd of
juveniles, who at this stage were treated with a scramble
for apples — the town officers throwing among them the
tempting fruit. The marchers then passed through the
grounds of Langlands and Lochend, to the north side of
St. Christopher's Chapel, and thence to the village of
Stoop, at the race-ground, near which a race was engaged
in for a saddle and pair of spurs. Thence they went
eastwards and southwards, betwixt the town's property
and the estates of Craigs and Netherwood, stopping at
Kelton Well, at which point the superiority of the burgh
terminates. Here, after being refreshed with something
stronger than the produce of the well, the officials heard
the roll of heritors read over bv the town- clerk, a note