GLASGOW. NEVER perhaps did the two chief cities of any one country differ in a greater number of circumstances than Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two busy centres of population in Scotland. They have had different careers marked out for them, and there are two groups of sympathies and attractions by which they are known and estimated. Neither one could fill the social place of the other. We think of them, and visit them, and read about them, with different expectations; and if chance were to throw us among the predominant classes in each city, we should find that Edinburgh thoughts and Glasgow thoughts take widely different directions. Let us compare them in a topographical and picturesque point of view. Nothing can compensate, at Glasgow, for the absence of those hills and valleys which give such a commanding aspect to Edinburgh. The Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, Salisbury Crags, the Castle Hill, the gentle eminences on which the new north and south towns are built-all afford so many standing points, from many of which the busilythronged valleys appear as if spread out on a map beneath the eye. In Glasgow we have little of this; there is a gradual ascent from the Clyde towards St. Rollox and Port Dundas; but there are few abrupt alternations of hill and valley. Transferring our attention to the houses on these hills and valleys: in Edinburgh we have the picturesque old town-Sir XV.-VOL. II. Walter Scott's Edinburgh, we may almost term it; with its lofty houses, its odd-looking wynds, its Castle, its Holyrood, its Heriot's Hospital, its Parliament House; and in the new town, we have a group of stone buildings of a totally different character and as sumptuous as anything of the kind in England. Then, directing the glance beyond all these houses, we have a fine open agricultural country encircling the city; to the north we have the Firth of Forth, with its steamers and white sails; and backing the whole on nearly all sides are the blue outlines of hills-the Fifeshire hills on one side, the Corstorphine on another, the Braid and Blackford hills on another, the North Berwick Law on another. We miss most of these elements of a landscape at Glasgow. The lower parts of the town are old, it is true; but they want the picturesque antiquity of Edinburgh. The new parts of the town have rows of good stone-built houses; but they cannot be seen from such a glorious point of view as Calton Hill; and the blue hills and the green fields do not catch the eye until we fairly get out of the great city. But change the phase of inquiry, and look out for the industrial rather than the picturesque. Here the difference between the two cities is as great as in the former comparison, but the supremacy is reversed. Edinburgh is supported by wealth procured elsewhere: Glasgow supports itself. Edinburgh does not make a When we go northward of the main artery, through | Glasgow. There is one street-Ingram Street-stretchTrongate and Argyle Street, we find the same fact stilling across part of this quadrangle from east to west, with the noble Exchange terminating the vista at its western end, which has but few parallels in the country for the architectural character exhibited by it. George Square-with its lofty Doric column surmounted by a statue of Sir Walter Scott (whose plaid is unfortunately placed on the wrong arm), its bronze statue of Sir John Moore, by Flaxman, and its bronze statue of James Watt, by Chantrey-is a noble quadrangle. more observable. The streets which originally formed the "west-end" for the old town are now given up to the merchants and bankers and warehousemen; while the old town has become of humbler note, and the private dwellings of the merchants and manufacturers stretch out far westward, over the districts of Blythswood, Woodside, and Garnett Hill, which were thirty years ago entirely market-gardens and cornfields. Eastward of the original High Street, or old town, the streets are almost invariably of a humble character, whether old or new; so that we find the Glasgow men, like the Americans, "go a-head" by going westward. South of the river the streets present fewer materials for making such comparisons. The south side is altogether an appendage to the north it is much smaller, much newer, and for the most part has only of late been brought within municipal connection with Glasgow. It consists of streets, branching out from the south bank of the Clyde, and extending as far into the open country as people can be found to inhabit the houses; and of a few streets crossing these pretty much at right angles. The streets are for the most part devoid of interesting buildings, unassociated with historical events, and (with a few fine exceptions) of a humble character. The greater part of what we shall have to say concerning Glasgow, therefore, will relate to the district northward of the river. The streets of Glasgow are many enough, and long enough, to make a Londoner wish that omnibuses and such like appliances were more numerous. This is a kind of luxury that Scottish townsfolk do not much indulge in. There are the conveyances which go out of the town at certain hours of the day, to neighbouring villages; and there are railway omnibuses to meet the trains; but the extraordinary amount of accommodation which is afforded in London by the passage of conveyances every minute in the day in so many directions, almost spoils one for the less gigantic arrangements of other towns. In the main arteries of London the omnibuses form a notable proportion of all the vehicles seen; in other towns they form but a small proportion. Omnibuses apart, however, the streets of Glasgow are full of liveliness and activity. An incessant stream is passing through the fine east and west artery formed by the Trongate and Argyle Street; and a stream little less dense, though of a somewhat different grade, flows along the older route of Saltmarket and High Street. Many of the streets which branch out of Argyle Street towards the north are fine and noble avenues, lined with stone buildings of considerable elegance. Queen Street and Buchanan Street are especially notable in this respect. The quadrangle-bounded by George Street and George Square, on the north; Candleriggs Street on the east; Hope Street on the west; and the Trongate and Argyle Street on the south,- contains within it a large proportion of the best buildings and of the most important commercial establishments of There is one feature that distinguishes the houses of Glasgow, as well as of Edinburgh, from those of most English towns. They are nearly all built of stone. Near Edinburgh are the abundant quarries of Craigleith, from which was procured nearly all the stone for the new town; while in Glasgow there was a quarry still nearer to the centre of the town, and others have recently been opened in its neighbourhood. This material gives a cleaner and more cheerful effect to the fronts of the houses, than can belong to the dusky brown of London bricks; and future centuries may perhaps tell us that it is also more durable. We do not say much about the lofty chimneys of Glasgow, until the factories come to be noticed; but it is impossible even to think of a bird's-eye view of this emporium, without having the magnificent St. Rollox chimney in our thoughts. It is hard work to be poetical upon such subjects as smoke, and soda, and sulphur, and salt, and soap; yet is the chimney of this vast chemical establishment something beyond the prose of street-walking mortals. It is the land-mark of Glasgow, as St. Paul's is of London; and being placed nearly on the highest point of the city, its altitude is still more enhanced. It is the first thing seen from a distance-(no: the smoke of it and its brother chimneys is the first); and it is from a distance that it is best viewed; for so fine are its proportions, that few spectators can conceive its real height when within a moderate distance from it. What then is this height? If a Londoner could conceive a building as lofty as St. Pancras Church steeple placed upon another building as high as the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, the united height of both would scarcely equal that of this wonderful brick structure! And all for what?—to carry off the smoke and gaseous residue incident to the manufacture of chemical substances, in order that the atmosphere may not be deteriorated by admixture at a lower altitude! Among those classes of society who are not to be deterred by difficulties, certainly our manufacturers are not the least conspicuous. THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF GLASGOW. Let us now, having seen how to get to Glasgow, and having taken a hasty glance at it as a whole, consider what are the steps by which it has risen to its present eminence: we shall thus be better able to understand its notabilities afterwards. There is very little need to go back beyond the times of St. Mungo, in the records of Glasgow; for even those times are dim and obscure enough. This St. Mungo, or Kentigern, is said to have been a grandson of Loth, king of the Picts, and to have been born about the year 516. He has the credit of having founded a church and see at Glasgow; but for a period of five hundred years afterwards the history of this see is a perfect blank it is supposed that the Danes demolished both church and see. Soon after the Norman conquest of England the see was re-founded, and the cathedral or church rebuilt; and we read from time to time, in the succeeding centuries, of the power and influence of the bishops. One of them, a fine old patriot in Edward the First's time, steadily and boldly resisted all the encroachments of that ambitious monarch; for which he was thrown into prison," where he was allowed only sixpence per day for his own table, threepence for his upper servant, one penny for his boy, and three-halfpence for his chaplain, who celebrated mass for him during his confinement." A battle between Wallace and Percy in the streets of Glasgow, in 1300; the destruction of the spire of the cathedral by lightning in 1387; the rebuilding of the great tower in 1408; and the raising of the see of Glasgow into an archbishopric about the end of the same century, are among the events chronicled in the history of Glasgow before the time of the Reformation. When the creation of the archbishopric took place, the pope's nuncio examined all the relics and treasures deposited in the cathedral, among which we are told were-" the image of our Saviour in gold; the images of the Twelve Apostles in silver; a silver cross adorned with precious stones, and a small piece of the wood of the cross of our Saviour; a silver casket, containing some of the hairs of the blessed Virgin; in a square silver coffer, part of the scourges of St. Kentigern, our patron; in a crystal case, a bone of some unknown saint, and of St. Magdalene; in a small phial of crystal, part of the milk of the blessed Virgin Mary, and part of the manger of Our Lord!" The see of Glasgow appears to have been in those days one of extraordinary splendour. At the Reformation the fine old cathedral was saved from destruction; but the temporal power of the prelates gradually diminished. Splendid as had been the see of the bishop, the town itself contained no more than 1,500 inhabitants down to the middle of the fifteenth century; but after the founding of the university, which took place about that period, "the population began to creep slowly down the hill upon which the cathedral stands; and having reached the position of the present cross, it branched slightly east and west, forming portions of the streets now called Gallowgate and Trongate; and as the craft of fishermen had sprung up among the people, Saltmarket-street was laid out for the means of easy access to the river." The townsmen gained municipal power by slow steps. Previous to the reign of James I. of Scotland, the town was a burgh of barony, and governed by bailies nominated by the bishop in 1450, James II. gave a charter, by which the town and patrimonies of the bishopric were erected into a regality. When the University was founded, the privileges granted to it greatly curtailed those of the townsmen; but at the Reformation the independent power of the townsmen became much increased. 66 It was at Glasgow that the great meeting of the ecclesiastical Synod of 1638 was held; at which the Scottish clergy boldly threw off the Episcopal yoke of England, refused to accept the Liturgy sent to them by Archbishop Laud, and commenced that struggle between the Episcopalians and the Covenanters which led to so many stirring events. Very soon after this a fire occurred, which almost consumed the city: but this, after the first pressure of the calamity was past, proved more an advantage than an injury; for the wooden houses and narrow streets were replaced by stone buildings and wide thoroughfares. Towards the close of the same century, in 1693, Slezer spoke thus of Glasgow, in his 'Theatrum Scotia :'-" Glasgow is the most famous empory of all the west of Scotland. Notwithstanding that it is inferior to many in antiquity, yet if we respect the largeness of the city, the number and stateliness of its public and private buildings, its commerce with foreign nations, and the opulency of its inhabitants, it is the chief of all the cities in the kingdom [of Scotland] next to Edinburgh." The period of the Union of the two kingdoms, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, is that to which we must trace the modern history of Glasgow; for it was about that time that the vast commercial enterprizes of its citizens began to assume a national importance. What those enterprizes were, will come under our notice in a later page. With regard to the state and appearance of Glasgow in the last century, we may content ourselves with an extract from Sir Walter Scott, who, in his tale of Rob Roy,' gives the following as a picture of Glasgow at the time which he has chosen for the period of that story :-" The dusky mountains of the Western Highlands," he says, "often sent forth wilder tribes to frequent the marts of St. Mungo's favourite city. Hoardes of wild, shaggy, dwarfish cattle and ponies, conducted by Highlanders, as wild, as shaggy, and sometimes as dwarfish as the animals they had in charge, often traversed the streets of Glasgow. Strangers gazed with surprise on the antique and fantastic dress, and listened to the unknown and dissonant sounds of their language; while the mountaineers, armed, even while engaged in this peaceful occupation, with musket and pistol, sword, dagger, and target, stared with astonishment on the articles of luxury of which they knew not the use, and with an avidity which seemed somewhat alarming on the articles which they knew and valued. It is always with unwillingness that the Highlander quits his deserts; and at this early period it was like tearing a pine from its rock, to plant him elsewhere. Yet even then the mountain-glens were over-peopled, although thinned occasionally by famine or by the sword, and many of their inhabitants strayed down to Glasgow-there formed settlements, there sought and found employment, although different indeed from that of their native hills. This supply of a hardy and useful population was of consequence to the prosperity of the place, furnished the means of carrying on the few manufactures which the town already boasted, and laid the foundation of its future prosperity. The exterior of the city corresponded with these promising circumstances. The principal street was broad and important, decorated with public buildings, of an architecture rather striking than correct in point of taste, and running between rows of tall houses, built of stone, the fronts of which were occasionally richly ornamented with mason-work-a circumstance which gave the street an imposing air of dignity and grandeur, of which most English towns are in some measure deprived, by the slight, unsubstantial, and perishable quality and appearance of the bricks with which they are constructed." THE CATHEDRAL, AND OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. The Cathedral is the kernel from whence Glasgow has sprung; and to the cathedral must be given the first share of our attention in describing the Glasgow of present times. Both spiritually and tangibly, the town spread from that hilly spot on which the cathedral stands. It is in truth a commanding position for a cathedral. The streets leading up to it from Hutcheson Bridge are no longer the most prominent and mercantile in the city; but they furnish a gradual ascent to the spot on which the cathedral is built. All around this venerable structure the appearance of things is such as would make an archæologist very dissatisfied: nearly everything is gone that tells of past ages. We learn that Bishop Cameron built his palace adjacent to the cathedral, and that he caused each of his thirty-two rectors to build a manse near it, in which he was to reside. If we now look for the palace, or for the thirty-two houses, or for the numerous other buildings which must have environed such a spot, we shall have but little return for our search. It is true that there are in Rotten-row, in Drygate, and in two or three other neighbouring streets, a few houses whose history evidently dates back three or four centuries; yet they are too few, and the history of them too uncertain, to tell us much of Glasgow in its archiepiscopal times. The old cathedral has maintained its integrity wonderfully well, considering the stormy scenes which church matters have witnessed in Scotland. If Mc Ure, the historian of Glasgow, is correct in placing the time of its erection in 1136, it is a monument well worthy of our attention; but it is at the same time evident, from the prevailing character of the architecture, that repeated additions and alterations were made in subsequent centuries. The original plan does not seem to have been fully carried out; for notwithstanding the successive additions made to it, the building still wants some of the elements of a complete cathedral. (Cut, No. 4.) The "High Church" (the Glasgow inhabitants more frequently use this appellation than "Cathedral") is built upon a plot of ground about a hundred feet above the level of the Clyde. The greatest internal length of the building is about 320 feet; the breadth 63; the height of the nave 85 feet, and of the choir 90. It is supported by 147 pillars, and is lighted by 157 windows; many of which, in the decorated style of pointed architecture, are of great beauty. There are indications that the building was intended to have had the form of a cross; but such is not its present form. It has no transepts; or rather, there is on the south side a projection which was long used as a place of sepulture, but which is now conceived to have been intended as a transept: there is no such projection on the north side. From the centre of the roof, where in most cathedrals the "crossing" would be, rises a beautiful tower, the spire of which has an altitude of 225 feet above the floor of the choir. There is another tower rising to a much less height than the central or proper tower. After the Reformation, when the form of Divine service no longer required the magnificent vistas of the old cathedrals, the choir, or eastern division, was alone used as a church; but as the wants of the Protestants increased, the western division, or nave, was also fitted up as a distinct church. The two churches thus formed obtained the names of the Inner and the Outer High Churches. By the erection of a new church in another part of Glasgow, this employment of the nave of the cathedral was afterwards dispensed with; and there seems reason to hope that the venerable nave-arches and groined vaults of the interior will once again present something like their former appearance. Glasgow Cathedral is the only existing specimen of that kind of sacred structure, still used, and in good condition, in Scotland, excepting that of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys: all the others were more or less mutilated or destroyed at the Reformation. Scott puts into the mouth of the shrewd old Andrew Fairservice, who accompanied Francis Osbaldistone to the cathedral, a speech on this subject, which has as much truth as oddity about it. "Ah! it's a brave kirk-nane o' yere whigmaleeries and curliwurlies and open steek hems about it-a' solid, weel-jointed mason-wark, that will stand as lang as the warld, keep hands and gunpowther aff it. It had amaist a douncome lang syne at the Reformation, when they pu'd down the Kirks of St. Andrew's 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 was na braid eneugh for her auld hinder end. Sae the Commons o' Renfrew, and o' the Barony, and the Gorbals, and a' about, they behoved to come into Glasgow ae fair morning, to try their hand on purging the High Kirk o' Popish nicknackets. 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 bell, and assembled the train-bands, wi' tock o' drum. By good luck, the worthy James Rabat was Dean o' |