This is the bird that never sang,
This is the bell that never rang,
This is the fish that never swam.
St. Enoch Church, built in 1780, and the St. Enoch terminus both, in
a way, owe their names to Kentigern. St. Enoch is a name you will not
find in the hierarchy of saints. There was never any such person, the
name being merely a corruption of that of Thenewth, the mother of
Kentigern.
The Cathedral itself is dedicated to Kentigern, under the pet name
given him by St. Serf.
[Sidenote: _THE CATHEDRAL_]
St. Mungo’s Cathedral, standing on the site where, by the “Glas-coed,”
or “dark wood” of the original settlement, the saint erected his
wooden mission church some thirteen hundred and fifty years ago, is
the successor of several buildings that have been erected on the spot,
and in its present form dates from what we are accustomed to style
the Early English period of the mid-thirteenth century. It consists
of nave, 155 feet in length, and choir of 97 feet; with aisles, Lady
Chapel, and Chapter House; while the crypt beneath the choir is one of
the most striking features of the building.
Occupying the highest point in Glasgow, the Cathedral was in olden days
in midst of very beautiful scenery, but in these times it is surrounded
by the poorest quarters and although it commands views of some extent,
they are only of roofs and chimneys and of the once pretty hillside
now thickly set with the larger or smaller monuments of the cemetery
called the “Necropolis.” The old Molendinar Burn that ran in the hollow
between the Cathedral and that crowded Golgotha was long ago covered
up and its course converted into a road spanned by the bridge leading
into the cemetery, called the “Bridge of Sighs.” Prominent above all
other monuments on that stricken hill is the tall column crowned by
an effigy of John Knox. The Cathedral Yard itself is a dismal place.
There, forming a close paving, are the memorials of many of Glasgow’s
departed citizens: the stones broken and mangy: merchants jostling
cock-lairds and dunghill squires with their heraldic achievements
weathered in most cases almost beyond recognition; and one of those
ferocious denunciatory Covenanters’ monuments with which every visitor
to Scotland soon becomes familiar.
They’ll know, at Resurrection Day,
To murder Saints was no sweet play.
So runs the savage rhyme.
The Cathedral, in common with other such ecclesiastical buildings in
Scotland, is maintained by the Office of Works, and is opened at ten
o’clock in the morning by an uniformed official. It is black without
and extremely dark within: the crypt, by reason of the darkness and
the maze of pillars, being a place wherein the stranger is reduced to
groping his way about. In short, a building of exquisite beauty, but
dank and dark to a degree. A great deal of this darkness is caused by
the bad, semi-opaque, highly coloured heraldic and other stained glass
inserted half a century ago.
Glasgow has ever been proud of its Cathedral. Sir Walter Scott echoes
this attitude in “Rob Roy,” where he makes Andrew Fairservice say: “A
brave kirk—nane o’ yer whigmaleeries and curliewurlies and opensteek
hems about it—a’ solid, weel-jointed mason-wark, that will stand as
lang as the warld, keep hands and gunpowther aff it.”
It would have gone ill with this “solid, weel-jointed mason-wark” when
the leaven of the Reformation was working, had not the Glaswegians,
prouder of the building than of the religion for which it stood,
presented a bold front against the fury of the surrounding townships
and their own suburbs, eager to destroy it altogether. Again, in the
words of Andrew Fairservice, “It wasna for love o’ paperie—na, na! nane
could ever say that o’ the trades o’ Glasgow. Sae they sune came 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 fleas are kaimed off
her, and a’body was alike pleased.”
[Sidenote: _CROMWELL_]
The Cathedral was then made to fulfil the needs of no fewer than three
congregations: one meeting in the choir, another in the nave, and a
third in the Laigh Kirk, or Low Church (_i.e._ the crypt). The ancient
pile has not been without its dramatic moments, as when, in October
1650, Cromwell himself sat here, unmoved, with Mr. Secretary Thurlow,
while a furious preacher, Dr. Zachary Boyd, emulating a like exploit of
John Knox before Queen Mary, many years before, for two hours preached
at him, as “Sectary and Blasphemer.”
“Shall I have him out by the ears and pistol him?” whispered Thurlow,
his anger gaining the better of his lawyer instincts.
“No,” replied the man of force and arms, unwontedly, but roughly,
diplomatic. “He’s a fool and you’re another: I’ll pay him out in his
own coin.”
He invited Boyd to dinner, and after the meal offered up an
exhausting prayer of three hours’ length. After this “like cures
like” homœopathic treatment, Dr. Boyd crept home, dazed, to bed and
nightmare: but it would surely have been more prettily exasperating had
Cromwell prayed his three hours _before_ dinner.
The Cathedral Square abuts upon one of the most squalid neighbourhoods
in Glasgow, but it is here that the oldest domestic building in the
city stands. The stranger’s attention is first attracted to it by
the legend, “Provand’s Lordship,” painted across the weathered stone
frontage over the hairdresser’s shop that occupies part of the ground
floor. Then, glancing at the high-pitched roof and the corbie-stepped
gables, characteristic of old Scottish architecture, he will perceive
that he is indeed contemplating a very reverend building. It was, in
fact, originally erected during the episcopacy of Bishop Muirhead,
1455-73, as a manse for certain of the clergy of the Cathedral, and
this portion of the building still exhibits a shield of the Bishop’s
arms: three acorns, on a bend. In 1570, shortly after the Reformation
had dispossessed the clergy of their properties, William Baillie, who
had been granted the Provand’s Lordship lands and houses by Queen
Mary in 1565, added the wing that now fronts upon the street. Here,
in 1565, before that addition was made, the Queen stayed on her visit
to Glasgow. The visitor, exploring the ancient and interesting, but
miserably uncomfortable, rooms, will, more than ever, suspect that the
goodness of the “good old days” is a myth.
[Sidenote: _PROVAND’S LORDSHIP_]
But why “Provand’s Lordship”? You might stand all day in the crowded
Cathedral Square, and canvass all who passed; and yet no one would be
able to tell you, unless indeed you happened upon one of the leading
spirits of the “Provand’s Lordship Literary Club,” Dr. Robert B.
Lothian, Messrs. R. H. Arnott, Thos. Lugton, and Jas. Murphy, who have
just purchased the property.
[Illustration: THE OLDEST HOUSE IN GLASGOW.]
According to those, and other, authorities, the house was in the
first instance erected as a residence for the priest in charge of St.
Nicholas’ Hospital, and afterwards became the residence of one of the
Cathedral prebendaries—the Prebendary of Balarnock, whose prebend
included a long strip of land extending from the Cathedral to Cowlairs
and Provanhall, five miles away to the east, where the country-house of
himself and those who succeeded him still stands. He was Lord of the
Manor of Provan, and so were his secular successors. Thus “Provand’s
Lordship,” a title Lord Rosebery, speaking in October 1907 at a dinner
given by the “Provand’s Lordship Literary Club,” professed himself
unable to understand. But what that sorry fugitive figure of political
failure cannot comprehend is not, it will be seen, after all, so
difficult of comprehension.
XXXVII
And now to revert to the secular story of Glasgow, which has been so
long interrupted. The village had by 1136 become important enough for
the site of the first Cathedral, and so through centuries it grew,
retaining the reputation of being “an exceedingly beautiful little
place” until the very dawn of the eighteenth century. It early stood
for law and order, and preferred the Hanoverians to the Stuarts,
both in the ’15 and the ’45: opposing the Old Pretender on the first
occasion with 600 men, and Prince Charlie on the second with double
that number. But the city was made to supply the rebels of 1745 with
£5,000 in gold and £500 worth of munitions. Its population was then
about 50,000. In 1768, when the modern commercial career of Glasgow
may be said to have commenced, in the works for the deepening of the
Clyde then undertaken, the inhabitants numbered about 70,000. At the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the figure had risen to 83,769,
in 1851 to 360,000, and is now computed at close upon one million.
[Sidenote: _THE CLYDE_]
The commercial genius and the farsighted energy of the Scottish people
have transformed what was the shallow, muddy estuary of the Clyde into
a busy waterway second to none in the world. As a river, the Clyde
has never counted for much, but as an estuary it has ever been of
importance; an importance, however, sadly neutralised by the shoals
that from the earliest known times obstructed the passage. Even in
remote days Glasgow made attempts to clear the fairway, and in 1565
efforts were devoted to increasing the depth of the channel, and to
correcting its course, “aimless in its wanderings, and dangerous with
banks and quicksands.” But little was done, and in 1651 it was reported
as every day more and more filling up. At that time no considerable
vessel could approach nearer Glasgow than Dumbarton, fourteen miles
distant, and the tonnage of the port was a mere 957 tons. This
condition of affairs remained until 1740, when John Golborne, a Chester
engineer, was employed to dredge and build jetties.
But in 1755, high-water at the Broomielaw still gave a depth of only
five feet, and at low-water there were but eighteen inches. To-day,
on the same spot, there is a twenty-five feet depth of water, and the
largest ocean-going steamers lie off the crowded quays.
But there is no finality here. If there were, Glasgow would be thinking
of shutting up shop. Dredging is still in progress, and the bottomless
Loch Long still receives the resultant harvest of mud. Meanwhile, the
revenue of the River Clyde Trust goes soaring up. One hundred and
fifty years ago it was £1,500 per annum. In 1898 it was £430,000, and
doubtless by now considerably exceeds half a million sterling. The
Broomielaw, once, in a distant past, a wild waterside common where
broom and heather flourished, is now a combination of Thames Street and
Blackfriars, London, the resemblance heightened by the similarity of
Glasgow Bridge and the lattice-girder railway-bridges to those spanning
the Thames.
The beauty of these lower reaches of the Clyde has, therefore,
departed; but although the river at Glasgow may look and smell very
like a sewer, Glaswegians are proud of it, as they have every right to
be, for it is their very own. The story is told of such a proprietary
Glasgow man being assured by a Canadian that a dozen Clydes could
be added to the St. Lawrence, and no difference be observed. “Weel,
mebbe,” the Glaswegian is reported to have said; “the St. Lawrence is
th’ wark o’ th’ Almichty, but we made th’ Clyde oorsels.”
The Clyde shipbuilding yards are to-day the first in the world, and the
riverside, from Glasgow city to Port Glasgow and Greenock, rings with
the clang of the hammers and the noise of the riveters busily adding to
the maritime tonnage of the nation.
North of the Cathedral is the more than usually unlovely district of
Port Dundas, where, beside the two canals that give the neighbourhood
the rather magnificent name of “Port,” are all manner of warehouses and
manufactories. This also is the St. Rollox district. I do not know who
St. Rollox was, but his name suggest as canonised boating champion. The
place is notable for the tall chimney of Townsend’s chemical works:
“St. Rollox’s big stalk,” 489 feet in height, said to be the tallest
chimney in the world. In a furious gale it sways like a flagstaff.
After an existence of fifty years, the lofty chimney was being
repointed in August 1907 when John Goldie, a steeplejack, fell from the
summit and was of course killed, every bone in his body being broken.
[Illustration: DIXON’S BLAZES.]
[Sidenote: “_DIXON’S BLAZES_”]
The south, as well as the north, has its industrial sights. Across
the river in Hutchesontown, is the well-known “Dixon’s Blazes”: great
ironworks that shed an infernal glow by night over the street and
the tramcars that run by. No Glaswegian ever willingly allows the
stranger to depart without seeing “Dixon’s Blazes”: but, after all,
Middlesbrough can show bigger sights in that kind.
After all, the most instructive views are Glasgow on a Saturday night
and the same place (but so changed that you ask yourself, _Can_ it
be the same?) on Sunday. At midnight on Saturday, Glasgow is roaring
drunk and the neighbourhoods of the Trongate and the Central Station
are veritable pandemoniums: but on Sunday those not thoughtful enough
to have laid in a private store of alcoholic liquor must needs go
thirsty, for Scotland is the land of rigorous Sunday closing. The only
way to circumvent this barbarous observance is to arm one’s self with
a prescription from a complaisant medical practitioner, indicating the
following:
Sp. Vini. Gall. oz. i
Aqua Sodæ Effervesc. oz. iv
Misce.
Presented at any chemist’s, this results, strange to say, in a
preparation not to be distinguished from what is sold on week-days
across the public bars as “whiskey and soda.”
It is along the Great Western Road, and in the park at Kelvingrove,
that Sunday finds Glasgow at its best: for there you are in the
residential districts, and the finest feathers are then assumed for
church-parade. It is the picturesque made more picturesque by the
stately group of the University buildings, erected between 1866 and
1870.
[Sidenote: _GEORGE SQUARE_]
Glasgow having the reputation of being the “best-governed city in
Great Britain,” it behoves the stranger, if not to pry into its great
tramways, gas and water and electric-lighting undertakings, and the
like municipal activities, at least to see the civic centre of the
place. This is George Square. A citizen of Glasgow—I think he was a
Lord Provost, or at the very least of it a bailie—has written a history
of George Square, from whose pages you may learn how (like Britain
arising at Heaven’s command from the azure main) George Square came
into being from some pitiful malebolge, at the august will of the city
council. It is a story touched to great issues, and if it does not make
my heart beat to a quicker rate, that is my own insufficiency.
To a Londoner, who cannot help his vice of comparison, George Square is
another, and a smaller, Trafalgar Square. To aid the resemblance and
confirm the smallness of the scale, here is a column in the centre. Sir
Walter Scott, and not Nelson, it is who in effigy occupies the summit.
The thing looks as though, with a little judicious watering and careful
culture, it might some day grow to be a Nelson column. All around are
other statues: equestrian effigies of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert;
and Colin Campbell, Thomas Campbell, Peel, Livingstone, Sir John
Moore, Burns, and others on foot. One side of the Square is occupied by
the “City Chambers”: what in England we would term the Town Hall. This
is a great pile designed by William Young, architect of the new War
Office building in London; and in the same classic renaissance style,
with the same old pepper-castor pavilions at either end: the usual
small ones (for cayenne) in the middle, and the inevitable pediment
and indispensable tower. The cost was £540,000, the building was open
in 1888, and this, the third or fourth Glasgow Town Hall, each one in
succession larger than its forebear, is already too small. So also is
the inconvenient General Post Office building, near by, opened in 1876.
In connection with the bronze Valhalla of heroes in George Square,
it may be noted that Glasgow is, in general, great in statues and
memorials. Probably the most majestic statue of Wellington in existence
is that in front of the Exchange, an equestrian effigy by Marochetti.
Nelson, on the other hand, is commemorated by a tall obelisk on Glasgow
Green.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Meat and hire.
THE END
INDEX
Abington. ii. 289
Adlington, i. 340, 346, 347-49
Alvaston, i. 281
Anglezarke Moor, ii. 85
Annan, River, ii. 269, 270, 272
Ardwick Green, i. 352
Arthuret, ii. 212, 214
Ashbourne, i. 76, 87, 306, 308-23
Askham Hall, ii. 172
Bamber Bridge, ii. 89
Bamford, Samuel, i. 51-111
Barnet, i. 56, 111, 119-21
Barnet Fair, i. 116-119
Barrow-on-Soar, i. 248, 253
Bass family (brewers), i. 311
Beattock, ii. 270, 273, 279, 284
Bedford, Dukes of, i. 157-64; ii. 292
Belgrave, i. 246, 251
Blackford, ii. 211
Blackwood, ii. 291
Blore, i. 329
Bollin, River, i. 345
Bollington, i. 345
Bolton, ii. 68-75
Bolton-le-Sands, ii. 132
Bonshaw Tower, ii. 263
Boothby, Penelope, i. 316-18
Boroughbridge, ii. 153-54
Bosley, i. 337
Bothwell, ii. 295
Bothwell Bridge, Battle of, ii. 294
Boughton, i. 198
Boughton Green, i. 198
Brailsford, i. 42, 308
Brandreth, Jeremiah, rebel, i. 89, 291-97
Bright, John, i. 22, 199; ii. 42-5
Brixworth, i. 200-3
Brougham, ii. 163-71
Broughton, near Newport Pagnell, i. 166
Buckstone, The, ii. 133-35
Bullock Smithy (Hazel Grove), i. 83, 350-52
Burton-in-Kendal, ii. 133-37
Calton Moor, i. 329
Carleton, ii. 188
Carlisle, i. 14, ii. 188-207, 214
Carlyle, Thomas, ii. 264-68
Carnforth, ii. 132
Carriers, i. 24, 311
Cavendish Bridge, i. 266, 279
Charles Edward, Prince (_see_ Rebellion of 1745).
Chorley, ii. 83, 86-88
Church Langton, i. 217-20
Churnet, River, i. 335
Clayton Green, ii. 88
Clayton-le-Woods, ii. 88
Clifton (near Manchester), ii. 68
Clifton (near Penrith), ii. 158-63
Clipston, i. 211
Clyde, River, ii. 272, 288, 289, 294, 307, 320
Coaches:—
Beehive, London and Manchester, i. 41
Carlisle Mail, i. 5-14
Carlisle Post Coach, i. 5
Courier, London and Glasgow, i. 29
Defiance, London and Manchester, i. 32, 34, 37, 41, 42, 308; ii. 65
Derby Dilly, Manchester and Derby, i. 309
Derby Fly, Derby and London, i. 290
Dumfries Coach, ii. 253, 255
Dumfries and Edinburgh Mail, ii. 283
Estafette, London and Manchester, i. 38
Flying Coach (1754), London and Manchester, i. 23
Flying Machine, London and Manchester, i. 24
Glasgow Mail, i. 5-21; ii. 149, 200, 268, 270-79, 286-88
Glasgow and Carlisle Diligence, ii. 271
Glasgow and Edinburgh Stage, i. 3
Handforth, Howe, Glanville & Richardson’s Manchester and London
Coach, i. 24
Independent, London and Manchester, i. 33
London Flying Machine (1770) Manchester and London, i. 24
London New and Elegant Diligence, Manchester and London, i. 25
Manchester Mail, London and Manchester, i. 25, 116; ii. 65
Manchester and Derby Mail, i. 310
Manchester Telegraph, London and Manchester, i. 33, 37-9, 41; ii. 66
New Diligence, Manchester and London, i. 25
Peveril of the Peak, London and Manchester, i. 22, 41, 42
Plummer’s Glasgow and London Coach, i. 5
Prince Cobourg, London and Manchester, i. 32
Red Rover, London and Manchester, i. 41, 43
Regulator, London and Manchester, i. 33
Royal Defiance, London and Manchester, i. 33
Coaching, i. 2-51, 125, 289, 309; ii. 129-32, 137, 147-53, 199-202,
230, 253, 255, 270-72, 274-79, 283-88, 296-98
Coaching accidents, i. 14, 42; ii. 147, 283, 285-88
Coaching and Carrying Notabilities:—
Ainslie, Jack, ii. 245-47
Anderson, James, ii. 165
Barnes, James, ii. 150
Bass, William, i. 311
Baxendale, Joseph, i. 311
Bird, “Parson,” ii. 149
Bryden, John, ii. 149
Byrns, Jim, i. 50; ii. 150
Campbell, Hugh, ii. 287
Chaplin, William, i. 33, 43
Davies, Tom, i. 47
Douglas, Harry, i. 46
Drydens, the, ii. 149
Eade, George, ii. 155
Goodfellow, John, ii. 283
Hoorn, William, i. 3
Horne, Benjamin Worthy, i. 43
Inns, Samuel, i. 47
Jervis, William, i. 48
Johnson, Isaac, ii. 150
Lacy, H. C., i. 25, 29; ii. 65
MacGeorge, James, ii. 283
Meecher, James, i. 47
Nelson, Robert, i. 41
Nightingale, Robert, ii. 148
Parkin, James, ii. 148
Pickford, Matthew, i. 24, 311
Pooley, John, ii. 151
Ramsay of Barnton, ii. 148
Reed, John, ii. 149
Sherman, Edward, i. 34-38, 43
Skaife, Edward, i. 50
Snow, Bob, i. 46
Teather, John, ii. 147, 199
Telfers, the, ii. 150
Venables, the, i. 49
Walker, John, i. 4.
Wall, Joe, i. 46
Waterhouse, William, i. 33, 34
Cockfosters, i. 121
Compton, i. 309
_Convagata_, Stanwix, ii. 205
Cook, Thomas (originator of railway excursions), i. 244
Countess Pillar, ii. 169, 171
Crawford, ii. 270, 288
Crompton, Samuel, inventor, ii. 28, 75-83
Cuckoo Bush, i. 266
Dane, River, i. 336, 337
Denighton Bridge, ii. 290
Derby, i. 75, 89, 281, 285-306
_Derventio_, Derby, i. 285
Derwent, River, i. 285, 304
Devil’s Beef Tub, ii. 272, 282
Dinwoodie Green, ii. 269, 273
Dorfcocker, ii. 84
Douglas Mill, ii. 290
Douglas Water, ii. 290
Dove, River, i. 324, 329
Dunstable, i. 61, 154
Dyrham Park, i. 124
Eakley (or Inckley) Lane, i. 173
Eamont Bridge, ii. 175-79
Eamont River, ii. 171, 175
East Langton, i. 217-20
Ecclefechan, ii. 264-68
Eden, River, ii. 171, 204
Elvanfoot, ii. 269, 272, 273
Elvaston, i. 281-85
End Moor, ii. 137
Ericstane Brae, ii. 269, 271, 273, 284
Esk, River, ii. 210, 214, 217
Evan Water, ii. 273, 284-88
Farleton Knott, ii. 134, 137
Farnworth, ii. 69
Faxton, i. 208-10
Finchley, i. 115
Firwood, ii. 75
Flamstead, i. 153
Flash, i. 342-45
Forton, ii. 107
Foxton Locks, i. 220
Friar’s Wash, i. 152
Galgate, ii. 107
Garstang, ii. 105-7
Gayhurst, i. 170-72
Giant’s Grave, the, ii. 183-85
Glasgow, ii. 296-324
Glen Magna (or Great Glen), i. 222
Gorhambury, i. 151
Goslin Syke, ii. 209
Gotham, i. 262-66
Great Glen (or Glen Magna), i. 222
Gretna Green, i. 14; ii. 210, 218, 222-53
“Gretna Green” Marriages:—
Bourbon, Prince Charles Ferdinand, and Penelope Smyth, ii. 249
Deerhurst, Viscount, ii. 248
Drumlanrig, Viscount, and Caroline Clayton, ii. 249
Dundonald, Earl of, and Katharine Barnes, ii. 248
Erskine, Lord Chief Justice, and Sarah Buck, ii. 247
Ibbetson, Captain, and Lady Adela Villiers, ii. 245
Lovell, Captain Francis, and Lady Rose Somerset, ii. 249
Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, and Ellen Turner, ii. 242-44
Westmoreland, Earl of, and Miss Child, ii. 244
Grindley Marsh, i. 352
Gunpowder Plot, i. 171
Hackleton, i. 177
Hackthorpe, ii. 156
Hadley Green, i. 124
Hall-i’-th’-Wood, ii. 28, 76-83
Hamilton, ii. 292-94
Hamps, River, i. 330
Hanging Bridge, i. 324-26, 329
Hardingstone, i. 178
Hassockwell Burn, ii. 272
Hathern, i. 261
Hazel Grove (Bullock Smithy), i. 83, 349-52
Heaton Chapel, near Stockport, i. 352
Heaton Norris, i. 352
Heaviley, i. 352
Helm Wind, the, ii. 146
Heron Syke, ii. 134
Hest Bank, ii. 120, 122, 129, 132
Highgate, i. 55, 115
High Hesket, ii. 187, 244
Hockliffe, i. 3, 61, 155
Hogstye End, i. 165
Hope Green, i. 349
Hopping Hill, i. 210
Horton, i. 174, 176
Horwich, ii. 84
Hucks Brow, ii. 147, 153
Inckley (or Eakley), Lane, i. 173