Watercolour on paper, 1851
James Drummond (1816-1877)
RCAHMS: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Collection
James Drummond was an antiquarian and artist who recorded Scotland’s towns and buildings in great detail. This drawing shows a late seventeenth-century townscape which has survived in layout to the present day. The homes of affluent merchants stand behind the market (or mercat) cross. A cross like this would stand at the centre of every Scottish burgh, where it served as a meeting point, and a place for the making of proclamations. The cross is topped with an acorn-shaped finial, and is dated 1697. It bears the heraldic devices of Charles, 9th Lord Elphinstone, who set up the cross.