Here was a windfall, great and unexpected; and what to do with it, became an interesting question. The burgesses and "burden bearers" who had taken a lead in arraying the commonalty against the magnates of the Tolbooth, wished the compensation money to be spent on something that would be both useful and ornamental-which idea was, as may be conceived, highly acceptable to the latter body; and, as the result of several public meetings, it was unanimously resolved that a new town-house, overtopped by an imposing steeple, should be erected to benefit and adorn the Burgh. It was on the 30th of April, 1703, that a definite arrangement was made to this effect, at a meeting of "the magistrates, members of council, the most eminent and considerable heritors, burden-bearers, burgesses, and haill community," and that after receiving an overture subscribed by ninety-three influential persons, the principal passages of which we subjoin:-" We doe hereby propose and offer to the magistrats and council, . . . that whereas the toun is not at present provided with sufficient prisones, whereby several malefactors guilty of great crimes, and others for debt, have made their escape, to the dishonour and iminent perill of the Burgh; as also that there is not ane steeple in the whole toun, nor ane suitable council-house and clerk's chamber for keeping the charter chist and records of the Burgh, nor ane magazine house, nor room for the sure keeping of the toun's arms and ammunition thereto belonging; therefore it is our opinion and unanimous advice, . . . that the said sum of twenty thousand merks be disposed of and employed for the uses foresaid, which we judge may be conveniently done for the money; and that the same be built on the waist ground at the back of the Cross, being in the middle of the toun and highest place thereof."

A committee was appointed to carry the wish of the meeting into effect, consisting of John Sharpe of Hoddam; Thomas Rome, ex-Provost; William Craik of Duchrae; John Irving of Drumcoltran; John Irving, younger of Logan; Alexander M'Gowan, writer, Edinburgh; and Walter Newall, late Convener of the Trades: to whom were added by the Council, John Coupland of Colliston, Provost; Bailies Crosbie and Barclay; Captain

* Town Council Minutes.

Robert Johnston of Kelton, ex-Provost; John Irvine of Logan, ex-Provost; James Milligan, dean; John Gilchrist, merchant; John Brown, ex-treasurer; John Irving, deacon-convener; and Robert Newall, deacon of the wrights. John Moffat, a Liverpool architect, was employed by the Committee to come to Dumfries and "furnish a modall" for the proposed fabric. He arrived in due time; and, that he might obtain the requisite architectural inspiration, he proceeded to the city of St. Mungo, as is shown by an item in the Treasurer's account:-"To Mr. Moffat, architect, and Dean Johnston, 24 lbs. [Scots] to bear their expenses in their journey to visit Glasgow steeple." According to another entry in the same account, dated 10th April, 1704, Mr. Moffat was paid £104 Scots "for drawing the steeple scheme, and in name of gratification for his coming to Dumfries." For some reason or other he backed out of his engagement with the Committee; and they, in January, 1705, "considering how long the designed building is retarded for want of an architect," resolved "to send for one Tobias Bachup, a master builder now at Abercorn,* who is said to be of good skill." What Moffat left at an incipient stage, Bachup cordially agreed to complete-he coming to the Burgh for that purpose in the following month.

Whilst the Committee were put to some little trouble in this matter, they had many other difficulties to surmount. There was no adequate timber, as in ancient times, in the vicinity of the town; and the first impulse of the Committee was to freight a vessel and send it for that material to "Noroway o'er the faem." Then there was no available lime lying nearer than Annandale; and though there were plenty of stones in the town's quarry at the foot of the Dock, men able to excavate and use them were exceedingly scarce in the district. The erection of a fabric that was to cost 19,000 merks (£1,041 13s. 4d. sterling), was such an extraordinary enterprise for a small town of that day, like Dumfries, that the Committee were often at their wits' end;

Bachup was then engaged in building a house at Abercorn House; but he resided in Alloa, his native town.

+ Minute-book of the Steeple Committee. This book, consisting of nearly sixty pages of beautiful manuscript, is preserved in the Record Room of the Town Hall.

and they must have spent a vast amount of time and energy, and lost many a night's sleep, whilst engaged with their herculean task. At one of their sederunts, Provost Coupland reported "that he and Bailie Corbet, when they were at Edinburgh, had made search for a free Danish or Swedish bottom for fraughting for timber to Norway, and after dilligent search, they found that there can be none gotten at a easy rate.”* A resolution to search for the article in this country was therefore come to; and, after an exploratory raid, trees of sufficient size were discovered at Garlieswood, in the Stewartry, which the proprietor was willing to dispose of. How to bring the Galloway oaks to the banks of the Nith-" Birnam Wood to Dunsinane" -was the next difficulty. The forest was some miles inland; so that the trees, after being felled, had to be transported by horses over wretched roads to the Dee, and then conveyed in a flat boat or gabbart, and in rafts, down Kirkcudbright Bay into the Solway, and thence up the Nith to Kelton or the Dock, where horse-power was again needed to take them to Dumfries.

These processes were extremely perplexing, laborious, and expensive to our ancestors; and when the Committee had, by means of them, laid in a considerable stock of timber, they were very glad to come to such terms with the new architect as rolled upon him a large share of their burden-he agreeing, at their urgent request, to supply all the remaining materials, as well as to erect the building. A sub-committee having met with Mr. Bachup on the 14th of February, 1705, reported to the “Grand Committee" the result of their interview as follows:-"That with great difficulty they had brought him to offer to furnish all materialls necessar for the said fabrick, and to construct the same conform to the scheme drawn, and the alterations of the dimensions which the Committee had made, so as the same may be complete both in mason and wright work, and in the doors, windows, roof, and other parts thereof, against Martinmas, 1707, and to carry the work on as followes, viz.: to build the first stories to the jests, in the first year (the work being to be begun in May nixt), and to cover the roof of the Council-house, and carry up the steeple as high the nixt year, and to complete the steeple, and all the other work, and ridd the ground betwixt

* Steeple Committee's Minutes.

and Martinmas, 1707 years, and then to deliver the keys, at that term, to the toun; and that for the sum of nineteen thousand merks Scots, with a complement to his wife, and another to himself, by and attour five hundred merks, which he refers to the toun's will, whither they will give it to him at perfecting the work or not."* All the terms having been duly settled and signed, the foundation-stone of the steeple buildings was laid on the 30th of May; and Mr. Bachup having brought a large body of masons from a distance, and vanquished all remaining obstacles as to the supply of materials, he finished his undertaking at the appointed time, and to the satisfaction of his employers.

It was at first intended that the stair at the south end of the Council-house should be fenced with a stone wall; but, instead of that, it was supplied with a rail of wrought-iron (forged by an Edinburgh artificer), the existing remains of which prove it to have been a magnificent piece of workmanship.

In order that the lieges might be duly apprised of the time of day, a clock for the spire was commissioned from Mr. John Bancroft, Stockport, which cost £21 sterling, the four dial plates for the same having been painted by Mr. John Chandley, Cheedle, at an expense of £11; these sums being exclusive of the personal charges incurred by the contractors in visiting the town. Then, by way of furnishing a voice to the Burgh in seasons of festivity and triumph, and to announce the time for church-going, three bells were cast for the steeple by Mr. George Barclay of Edinburgh one eight hundred pounds weight, another of five hundred pounds, and the third of three hundred pounds; the whole costing £1,698 14s. 6d. Scots, including the expense of tagging, tongueing, transporting, and hanging of the said three bells."†

When all these items are taken into account, it appears very obvious that the cost of the Tron Steeple (as it was first called), the Council Chamber, and the rest of the buildings, with their furnishings, would much more than exhaust the original fund of 20,000 merks; and the probability is that the entire expense was not less than £1,500 sterling.

To Inigo Jones the credit of designing the Mid-Steeple is Steeple Committee's Minutes.

*

† Ibid.

usually attributed; but that, it now appears, must be shared between Mr. John Moffat and Mr. Tobias Bachup, the former having supplied the first sketch, the latter modifying it less or more before translating it into stone, lime, and timber. That Bachup had much more to do with the building than masonwork and superintendence, is evident from the terms in which he is spoken of by the Committee; these being, “Mr. Tobias Bachup, our architect," "builder and architect of the fabric and desyned steeple," "architect and builder of the steeple and Council-house."*

Some other works of considerable importance were carried on contemporaneously with the steeple. When the century commenced the banks and braes on both sides of the river appeared very much as Nature had formed them. In Bridgend there was not a house further down than the one belonging to James Birkmyre; there were no mills nor road in that direction, the only regular roads from the village being those leading to the parish church of Troqueer, Terregles House, and Lincluden College. Dumfries terminated a little below St. Michael's Church; and, save the excavations at the Castledykes quarry, and the road which swept round the west of Lochar Moss to England, there were few traces of man's handiwork in the southern vicinity of the Burgh. The Dock, the lands of Castledykes and Kingholm, all lay in pasture-their virgin soil unpierced by plough or spade, and unprovided with either road or fence. A portion of Castledykes, at the period to which we refer, was private property, but it having been acquired by the Burgh about 1707, a road was constructed from the foot of St. Michael Street to Kingholm, for the special use of carters doing business at the quarry or with the shipping; and at the same

* We have been favoured by an Alloa gentleman with the following note:-"It appears that the architect's father, Thomas Bachup, was mason to the Earl of Mar in the end of the seventeenth century. John Crawford, our local antiquary, has a curious document in his possession, a contract between John, Earl of Mar, and Thomas Bachup, 'masone in Alloway, for building a new arch at the Bridge of Tullibody, mending the pier and the calsie,' 18th January, 1697. The deed is signed by Tobias Bachup as a witness. There is an old house in Kirkgate here, which was built by Tobias. It has a sculptured stone on the front dated 1695, with the initials of himself and wife, T. B.' and 'M. L.' His wife, to whom he was married in 1684, was named Margaret Lindsay."