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Douglas Street, named for James Douglas of Mains. James Campbell, the younger brother of Colin Campbell, the fifth of Blythswood, was left the estate of Mains by his mother's father, and he then assumed the name of Douglas.
Dovehill (Great and Little) was originally the Dow Hill, which was intended to mean dew hill. In Gaelic it is dhu or black hill. The monkish conveyancers, however, rendered it the Hill of Doves.
Drury Street. Two youths residing here when it was in a state of chaos, having got stagestruck through reading about Drury Lane Theatre, and wishing to impart as much of a theatrical air as possible to their environs, got the name printed and posted on a corner building, where it stuck to the wall, and has stuck to the locality ever since.
Drygate Street is undoubtedly the oldest thoroughfare in the city. In Jamieson's history of the Culdees it is stated that the Pagans brought the word dry from Germany, as being the name by which every German priest was called. In ancient times, anterior to our ecclesiastical history, a Druidical place of worship stood on the site of the present Necropolis, the only approach to which must have been the Drygate, hence it was designated the priests' road. A mint-house was erected here during the reign of Robert the Third.
Duke Street, opened 1794, is named for the Duke of Montrose, whose lodging overlooked it. Previous to 1801 it extended as far west as Balmanno Street, the name being cut deep in the east corner tenement. It was at first known as Carntyne Road, and is the longest street in any city in the United Kingdom, which came out in the following way:—In the course of a controversy in a weekly periodical on this question, a prize being offered to the person who solved the matter, Oxford Street, London, was given and accepted as the longest; but our respected townsman Mr. M. Gemmel, the well-known property agent, had reason from his own knowledge to be dissatisfied with the award,
