GLASGOW. (HISTORY.) 



455 



pacy obtained in the church. From 1592 to 1610, 

 it was strictly presbyterhiii. From 1610 to 1638, it 

 was again episcopalian. In 1638, it resumed the 

 Presbyterian form in all its vigour, which it retained 

 till 1662. In 1662, the tyrannical court of Charles 

 forced episcopacy upon the nation, and upheld it, 

 amid the tears and blood of hundreds of martyrs to 

 the presbyterian cause, till the revolution of 1688. 

 Since that time, the church of Scotland lias been 

 uniformly governed according to the presbyterian 

 form. From these changes it has happened that 

 archbishops and presbyterian clergymen held offices 

 in Glasgow at one and the same time. Among the 

 protestant archbishops of this city, may be mentioned 

 John Spotiswood, well known for his history of the 

 church of Scotland, and James Law, author of a 

 commentary on the Scriptures. 



Amid the zeal that fired the early reformers, the 

 cathedral church made a narrow escape from destruc- 

 tion. An order was given by the privy council to 

 pull down all the images and altars in the churches. 

 This order was more than fulfilled, for not only the 

 images and altars were pulled down, but many of the 

 stately edifices themselves were defaced or levelled 

 to the ground. Still the cathedral of Glasgow 

 escaped, until 1579, when, according to Spotiswood, 

 by the earnest persuasion of Mr Andrew Melville, 

 then principal of the college of Glasgow, and some 

 other protestant ministers, the magistrates, seconded 

 by zealots from the country, agreed to demolish it, 

 and to build, with its materials, several small 

 churches. But the craftsmen of Glasgow, hearing 

 of this intention, assembled in arms by tuck of drum, 

 and threatened destruction to any one who offered to 

 lay a hand on their venerable cathedral. The design 

 was therefore abandoned. Sir Walter Scott, who has 

 rendered the cathedral for ever classical by his inim- 

 itable description of it, alludes to the narrow escape 

 it made, at this time, in the following humorous 

 speech, which he puts into the vulgar mouth of 

 Andrew Fairservice " Ah ! it's a brave kirk ! Nane 

 o' your whig-maleeries, and curliewurlies, and open- 

 steek hems about it a' solid, weel-jointed mason 

 wark, that will stand as lang as the warld, keep hands 

 and gun-powther aff it. It had amaist a doun-come 

 lang syne at the Reformation, when they pu'd down 

 the kirks of St Andrews and Perth, and thereawa', 

 to cleanse them o' popery, and idolatry, and image 

 worship, and surplices, and sic like rags o' the 

 muckle hure, that sitteth on seven hills, as if ane 

 wasna braid eneugh for her auld hinder-end. Sae the 

 commons o' Renfrew, and o' the Barony, and o' the 

 Gorbals, and a' about, they behoved to come into 

 Glasgow ae fair morning, to try their hand on purg- 

 ing the High Kirk o' popish nick nackets. But the 

 townsmen o' Glasgow, they were feared their auld 

 edifice might slip the girths in gaun through siccan 

 rough physic, sae they rang the common Dell, and 

 assembled the train bands wi' took o' drum by good 

 luck, the worthy James Rabat was dean o' guild 

 that year (and a gude mason he was himsell, made 

 him the keener to keep up the auld bigging) and 

 the trades assembled, and offered downright battle to 

 the commons rather than their kirk should coup the 

 crans, as they had done elsewhere. It wasna for 

 love o' Paperie na, na ! nane could ever say that o' 

 the trades o' Glasgow Sae they soon cam to an 

 agreement to take a' the idolatrous statues o' sants 

 (sorrow be on them !) out o' their neuks And sae 

 the bits o' stane idols were broken in pieces by 

 scripture warrant, and flung into the Molendinar 

 Burn, and the auld kirk stood as crouse as a cat, 

 when the flaes are caimed aff her, and a' body was 

 alike pleased." 



Besides being involved in the religious commotions 



of the times, Glasgow had also its share in the politi- 

 :al conflicts of the period. In 1542, we find its castle 

 icsieged, and its immediate environs the scene of an 

 ingagement betwixt two of the most powerful factions 

 ,hat then prevailed in the country. In that year, the 

 Earl of Lennox was invited from France by a power- 

 ful party, headed by the queen dowager of James V. 

 and Cardinal Beaton, in opposition to the Earl of 

 Arran, then regent. Before his arrival, however, 

 the latter nobleman had entered into an accommoda- 

 tion with his opposers, by which means the hopes of 

 Lennox were disappointed. Nevertheless, by the 

 distribution of some money, received from the French 

 government, Lennox soon excited them to hostilities, 

 and having fortified the bishop's castle at Glasgow, 

 proceeded thence to Dumbarton. But Arran, being 

 apprized of his designs, summoned an army to meet 

 at Stirling, with ten days' provisions. With this he 

 marched to Glasgow, and assailed the castle with 

 brass guns. The siege continued for ten days, after 

 which the place surrendered, on condition of quarter, 

 which was treacherously broken, all the garrison 

 soldiers being put to death, excepting one or two. 

 Lennox, being now joined by the Earl of Glencairn, 

 resolved, at the head of their tenants and adherents, 

 to lay waste the lands of the Hamiltons on the banks 

 of the Clyde. While putting this into execution, 

 their party, headed by Glencairn, was met and at- 

 tacked by the regent, at a spot called the Butts, near 

 where the infantry barracks now stand, and defeated 

 with much loss. Arran's army, thus victorious, im- 

 mediately entered Glasgow, and, as many of Lennox's 

 adherents were citizens, he plundered the town, even 

 to the carrying away the doors of the houses, shutters, 

 and the iron bars of the windows. After this engage- 

 ment, Lennox retired to England, where he married 

 Lady Margaret Douglas, niece to Henry VIII., 

 from which union sprang Henry Darnley, husband 

 to Mary queen of Scots. It may be here mentioned, 

 that Mary, towards the close of 1566, honoured 

 Glasgow with a visit, having come hither for the pur- 

 pose of attending her husband Darnley, who then 

 lay sick in the house of Mr Erskine, chancellor of the 

 chapter of the cathedral, situated on the north side of 

 the Drygate. Two years after this, the battle of 

 Langside, a village two miles south from Glasgow, 

 was fought, which crushed for ever the hopes of the 

 unfortunate queen. The regent Murray was in Glas- 

 gow, holding a court of justice, when lie received 

 information of the escape of Mary from Loch-Leven 

 castle, and of her advance with an army to Dumbar- 

 ton, with the view of strengthening herself in that 

 fort. Murray's forces amounted to about 4000 men, 

 many of whom were citizens of Glasgow, and he im- 

 mediately pitched his tent upon the burgh muir, to 

 the east of the town, a place which the queen's army 

 must have passed, had it taken the north side of the 

 Clyde. As, however, the queen took a different 

 route, passing westward on the south of the river, 

 Murray speedily changed his position, and, ordering 

 his cavalry to ford the Clyde, and his foot to pass the 

 bridge of Glasgow, he intercepted her just as she 

 approached the village of Langside, near which a road 

 then led from Hamilton, her last quarters. The van- 

 guard of the queen's forces ran eagerly to the com- 

 bat, befcnt, the main body of her army had advanced, 

 and, as they were exposed on the one flank to a con- 

 tinued fire from a body of musqueteers, and attacked 

 on the other by the regent's best troops, they were 

 soon obliged to give way, and the rout immediately 

 became universal. Mary beheld the discomfiture of 

 her army from a neighbouring hill, anil fled in despair 

 to England, where she committed herself and her 

 fortunes to the tender mercies of her cousin Eliza- 

 beth. Murray, her bastard brother, returned to Glas- 



