462 



GLASGOW. (DESCRIPTION.) 



laid on the rental of the town. It is not known with 

 accuracy how many died of cholera in Glasgow, as 

 latterly no reports of the cases were published, but 

 it may be calculated that between four and five thou- 

 sand perished. The total mortality of Glasgow and 

 suburbs in 1832 was above 10,000, and as little more 

 than 5000 forms the average annual mortality of the 

 place, the great increase ot that year must be attri- 

 buted to the ravages of cholera. 



Before and during the passing of the reform bill, 

 Glasgow distinguished itself by its activity in sup- 

 port of that measure. It was the first place in the 

 empire which set the example of reform processions 

 an example which was very generally followed, 

 and which had the advantage of showing in an 

 orderly manner the universality and strength of 

 opinion in favour of reform. Some of these proces- 

 sions at Glasgow were unequalled for extent, for 

 propriety of demeanour, and rich display of flags and 

 other devices. The public park or Green was, on 

 such occasions, made the general rendezvous, and 

 often, at the lowest calculation, above 100,000 

 human beings were to be seen assembled there, ac- 

 tuated by one object, and impressed by one spirit. 

 The most recent display of this kind occurred in 

 November, 1834, in honour of the Earl of Dur- 

 ham, upon whom the magistrates and town council 

 conferred the freedom of the town, and who, in the 

 evening, was treated to a public dinner, at which 

 above 1500 individuals, holding similar political 

 opinions with his lordship, were present. By the 

 passing of the reform bill, Glasgow gained the 

 privilege of returning two members to parliament. 

 Previous to this, it had only the shadow of a voice, 

 in conjunction with the burghs of Rutherglen, Ren- 

 frew, and Dumbarton, in electing one representative. 

 The constituency of Glasgow is upwards of 7000 ; 

 and since the passing of the Scots burgh reform bill 

 in 1832, this parliamentary constituency has also the 

 privilege of electing the town councillors, from 

 among whom the provost and bailies are chosen. 



Description. As Glasgow was included in the 

 Roman province of Valentia, and stands at a short 

 distance from the celebrated wall erected by Agri- 

 cola, it is probable that it originally formed a Roman 

 fort or station for defence against the inroads of the 

 mountain barbarians. About one hundred and fifty 

 years after the Romans had finally left the island, St 

 Kentigern, as we have seen, took up his abode here, 

 and, by the sanctity of his character, gave celebrity 

 to the place. Some are of opinion that he exercised 

 the office of a Christian bishop, and that the epis- 

 copal see of Glasgow was founded by him; but it is 

 more likely that he was only a religious recluse, for 

 whose sanctity posterity entertained such veneration 

 that they dedicated the cathedral church to his 

 memory. In all the writs of the Chartulary of Glas- 

 gow he is never once called bishop, but sometimes 

 confessor. At all events, about five centuries 

 elapsed from the death of St Kentigern, before the 

 see of Glasgow was supplied with a regular estab- 

 lishment, and the date when the place assumed an 

 importance above that of a mere village, or collec- 

 tion of rude huts formed of wattles or timber and 

 covered with straw, may be fixed at 1115, the year 

 when king David founded or refounded the bishop- 

 ric, and endowed it with ample possessions. From 

 that period, which witnessed also the commence- 

 ment of the building of the cathedral, to the period 

 of the reformation, Glasgow enjoyed all the conse- 

 quence attendant, in these days, on an episcopal see, 

 whose domination extended over the fairest and 

 richest portion of Scotland. In the Rottenrow, Dry- 

 pate, and Castle Street, to which the town was then 

 mainiy confined, were situated the mansions of the 



rectors,* prebendaries, and other dignitarww of thfi 

 church, some of which are still to be seen, either in 

 a ruinous state, or inhabited by poor people, but 

 with these exceptions, and the glorious exception of 

 the cathedral, nothing almost of Glasgow as a Ro- 

 man Catholic city now remains. Its churches, 

 chapels, convents, hospitals, and other appendages 

 of the popish establishment, are all levelled to the 

 ground. The bishop's palace, or as it was usually 

 called the castle of Glasgow, stood a little to the west 

 of the cathedral, and was surrounded with a stone 

 wall, adorned with turrets, bastions, and battlements. 

 It underwent several sieges both before and during 

 the reformation ; after which event, it long remained 

 in a habitable state, till at length it was suffered to 

 fall into decay. It still, however, as a ruin, formed 

 a noble and interesting appendage to the cathe- 

 dral, and might have remained to this day, if man had 

 touched it with as gentle a finger as time. But the 

 profitable was preferred to the picturesque. Some 

 time during last century, materials were taken from 

 it for building an inn in the Gallowgate, called the 

 Saracen's Head ; again, in 1778, a large portion of 

 it was taken down to widen the street ; and in 1789, 

 its last remains were removed, to make room for the 

 site of the Royal Infirmary. The old building at the 

 foot of the Saltmarket, nearly opposite the Bridge- 

 gate, called Silvercraig's Land, which was taken 

 down a few years ago, was at one time a country 

 residence of the bishops. Oliver Cromwell, when in 

 Glasgow, in 1650 51, resided and held his levees in 

 this land. After the reformation, the country seat 

 of the archbishops of G lasgow was at Partick, where 

 archbishop Spottiswood built a castle in 1611, the 

 ruins of which still remain. 



Old M'Ure, the earliest historian of the town, gives 

 us a glimpse of Glasgow during the Roman Catholic 

 dynasty, which presents it in a very imposing light. 

 " After bishop Cameron," he says, " had built his 

 palace or castle near the high church of Glasgow, he 

 caused the thirty-two members, parsons or rectors of 

 the metropolitan church,each of them to build a manor 

 or manse near the same, and ordained them all to re- 

 side here, and to cause curates to officiate in their stead, 

 through their respective parishes. This great prelate 

 now being seated in his palace, and the thirty-two 

 parsons having built their respective manses or manors 

 on the four streets adjacent to the great church, 

 he made a most solemn and magnificent proces- 

 sion and entry to the metropolitan church ; twelve 

 persons or fertors carrying his large silver crozier and 

 eleven large silver maces before him, accompanied 

 with the thirty-two parsons, members of the chapter 

 belonging to the great church, the bells of the two 

 steeples ringing, the organs, with the vocal and in- 

 strumental music sung by the masters of the sacred 

 music in the cathedral, gorgeously arrayed with costly 

 vestments, and especially when Te Deum and Mass 

 were to be sung and celebrated. But further, the 

 great resort of his vassals and tenants, being noble- 

 men and barons of the greatestfigure in the kingdom, 

 waiting and attending upon this spiritual prince, in 

 procuring from him charters of confirmation and re- 

 signation, tacks of lands and tithes, together with the 

 ecclesiastic persons that depended upon him, made 

 his court to be very splendid, next to majesty itself.' 



The reformation, as we have already stated in the 

 historical sketch, was at first prejudicial to the pros- 

 perity of the city, by doing away with its ecclesias- 

 tical importance. But being the seat of a university, 

 and having always a considerable inland trade, it 



* The old town lodging of the noble family of Montrose, 

 originally belonged to the rector of Eaglesham. It cam*} 

 into the M ontrose family in 1580, but is now converted into 

 small dwelling-houses and weavers' shops. 



