Every fortnight a _Moot_ was held within the burgh, at which every burgher within the walls was bound to be present--in winter, before _Undern_, or nine o’clock in the morning; and at _Midmorn_ during the summer--a greater Burgh-moot being assembled at Michaelmas, Christmas, and Easter, at which the presence of every upland burgher was also required, their absence being punished by the highest fine levied--the full forfeiture--as the burgher who dwelt without the walls was excused attendance upon the lesser moots. The general Burgh-moot was evidently a relic of the time before the separation of the Castle from the Burgh, when the upland thegns were bound, under heavy penalty, to meet three times a-year to fulfil the duties of their tenure; the lesser moots, and the general regulations of the burgh having been probably left very much to the _Twyhyndmen_ who dwelt within the walls. A watch was established for the security of the town; and at the stroke of a staff upon the door, an inmate was bound to come forth from every burgher’s house, and, armed with two weapons, to join in keeping watch and ward over the sleeping burgh from _couvre-feu_ to _cockcrow_, the houses of widows alone being exempted from this duty. The trades were under the general superintendence of the _Probi homines_, or leading men of the burgh, and some of their regulations are remarkable. The baker whose bread was not made and placed openly, in the window, for sale, was fined “full forfeiture,” and his bread confiscated for the use of the poor--a somewhat questionable method of disposing of it, if the law was to punish its adulteration. The provision dealer was obliged to sell all that was in his house beyond the value of fourpence, if required, on the plea that it was public property--an enactment levelled, probably, against hoarding provisions in a time of scarcity for private use, or for profit; for when famines were of frequent occurrence, the dealer in the necessaries of life might be tempted to speculate in his neighbours need. The dignity of the magistracy was kept up by prohibiting any Provost, Bailie, or Bedell, from making bread, or brewing ale, for sale; and of the burgherhood, by excluding from its privileges every dyer, butcher, or tanner, who worked at his calling with his own hands. If he aspired to become a member of the guild, the business was to be deputed to other hands, whom he was only to superintend as “a master.” Cloth appears to have been the staple product of the time, and wool was as jealously guarded as in England, none but a burgher being allowed to buy it, for the purposes of dying, or cloth-making. An occasional difficulty with “the hands,” as at present, appears to have arisen, though from different causes; but the age was less scrupulous, and the _Kemester_, or wool-comber, who tried to escape to the Upland, might at once be committed to the town-jail, on the plea that there was work to be done. The runaway was not