THE AULD KIRK STYLE. I53 The Luckenbootha.]
turesque and heavily-eaved buildings, stood in the
thoroughfare of the High Street, parallel to St.
Giles's church, from which they were separated
by a close and gloomy lane for foot passengers
alone, and the appellation was shared by the
opposite portion of the main street itself. This
singular obstruction, for such it was, existed from
among whom we may well include the well-known
firm of Messrs. M'Laren and Sons.
It was pierced in the middle by a passage called
the Auld Kirk Style, which led to the old north
door of St. Giles's, and there it was that in 1526
the Lairds of Lochinvar and Drumlanrig slew Sir
Thomas MacLellan of Bombie (ancestor of the
'
CREECH'S LAND. (Frmn an Ewaving ix Air "Fugitive Pircer.")
' the reign of James 111. till 1817, and the name is
supposed to have been conferred on the shops
in that situation as being close buuths, to distinguish
them from the open ones, which then lined the great
street on both sides, Zacken signifying close, thus
implying a certain superiority to the ancient traders
in these booths ; and it was considered remarkable
that amid all the changes of the old town there
is still in this locality an unusual proportion of
mercers, clothiers? and drapers, of very old standing,
a0
Lords Kirkcudbright), with whom they mere at
feud-an act for which neither of them was ever
questioned or punished.
Prior to the year 18 I I there remained unchanged
in the Luckenbooths two lofty houses of great
strength and antiquity, one of which contained
the town residence of Sir John Byres, Bart., of
Coates, an estate now covered by the west end of
new Edinburgh. He was a gentleman who made
a great figure in the city during the reign of
