252 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAI. HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW, 



in the city." In June, 1825, Hopkirk undertook the 

 responsibility of editing and managing the issue of 

 a comic illustrated paper, entitled The Glasgow 

 Loohing-Glass, of which the name was afterwards 

 <»hanged to The Northern Looking - Glass. This 

 was the first paper of the kind published here. 

 It is a demy folio, each number consisting of 

 four pages, usually three of these wholly devoted 

 to illustrations. The sketches are mostly of a 

 humorous kind, caricatures of persons and illus- 

 trations of current events or matters of 

 interest at the time. Common impressions were 

 sold at Is. 6d. each number, the best at 2s., and 

 coloured ones at a higher rate. The earlier numbers 

 were produced entirely by a lithographic process, 

 while the plates in the later ones were printed 

 from etchings on copper. Hopkirk himself appears 

 to have done a large part of the work, including 

 some fac-similes of handwriting; but most of the 

 illustrations are by Heath, an artist who came from 

 London, and who evidently possessed both skill and 

 a sense of humour. 



This venture was, I suppose, unremunerative, as 

 the issue ceased in the following year. Copies are 

 now valuable, owing to the sketches of scenes, places, 

 and i3eople in old Glasgow. Complete sets are rare, 

 and highly prized by book-collectors.* 



A striking feature in the Looking- Glass, underlying 

 the humour and caricature, is the prompting given 

 towards increasing the amenities of the city. An 

 unsightliness is indicated for removal; it is shown 

 how ordinary places may be made ornamental, and 

 how the natural beauty of others may be heightened. 

 Hopkirk loved agreeable surroundings, and he was 



* The office from which this paper was issued was situated in 

 part of the area now occupied by Anderson's College in George 

 Street. In Atkinson's Ant (Glasgow, 1827) occurs the following 

 passage: ''1825. The Looking -Glass. A folio collection of sketches, 

 all of them humorous and exaggerated, but few of them simply 

 characteristic, engraved from clever designs by a Mr. Heath, 

 and better suggestions by Mr. H k." 



