Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

GLASGOW
the square is a bronze statue of Dr Thomas Graham,
seated, by Brodie, erected in 1872. At the SW
corner is a bronze statue of James Watt, seated, by
Chantrey, erected in 1832. Between Watt and Graham
on the S side are bronze statues of Sir John Moore and
Lord Clyde, both standing. The former, whicli is by
Flaxman, was erected in 1819 ; the latter, by Foley,
■was erected in 1868. It at first stood on the W side of
the square. A little behind Sir John Moore is a bronze
statue of Bums, standing, by Ewing, which was unveiled
in 1S77 by Lord Houghton, in presence of some 30,000
spectators. The pedestal has bas-reliefs. The com-
panion statue — a little behind Lord Clyde — is a bronze
standing figure of Campbell, the poet. The last of the
statues in the square is one of Dr Livingstone, in the
middle of the W side ; all the pedestals are of granite.
There is an equestrian statue of William IIL on the
pavement in front of the Tontine buildings in the
Trongate. It was erected and presented to the city in
1735 by James Macrae, a native of Glasgow, who had
been governor of Madras. On Glasgow Green is a
sandstone obeUsk 144 feet high, to the memory of Lord
Nelson. It was erected in 1806 at a cost of £2075.
On the four sides of the base are inscribed the names of
his greatest battles. In the Royal Infirmary square is
a bronze statue, by Mossman, of James Lumsden, Lord
Provost of Glasgow in 1843, and long honorary treasurer
of the Royal Infirmary. It is 8J feet high, stands on
a pedestal 10 J feet high, and was erected in the end of
1862. Near by, close to the Barony Church, is a bronze
statue of Dr Norman Macleod, erected in 1881.
In front of the Royal Exchange in Queen Street is a
bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by
Marochetti, one of the finest monuments in Glasgow.
It stands on a granite pedestal, and was erected in 1844
at a cost of £10,000. On the pedestal are four bronze
bas-reliefs, those at the sides representing the battles of
Assaye and Waterloo, while those at the end represent
the peaceful life of a peasant before he is called away to
war, and his happy return to his home and kindred at
the conclusion of peace. In niches in the Ingram Street
front of Hutcheson's Hospital are two ancient and some-
what primitive. looking statues of the brothers Hutche-
son. Near the centre of the S part of Kelvingrove Park
is a tasteful and beautiful — excepting the gilding of the
surmounting bronze figure — fountain erected in com-
memoration of the introduction of a water supply from
Loch Katrine into Glasgow, and in honour of Lord
Provost Stewart, who took a prominent part in the
carrying out of the scheme. It was inaugurated in
1872. The outer basin is 60 feet in diameter, and the
fountain which rises to a height of 40 feet, and is richly
sculptured, is surmounted by a bronze figure by John
Mossman, representing the Lady of the Lake. There
are also bronze panels, one with a medallion portrait of
Lord Provost Stewart, the others with allegorical designs
representing the introduction of the water supply. On
a granite pedestal, a short distance olf, is a bronze group,
representing a tigress carrjdng a dead peacock to her
lair, and her cubs greedily welcoming the prey. It was
presented to the city by John S. Kennedy, a native of
Glasgow, who removed to New York. Close by is a
small bronze group of a girl playing with a dog, and
intended to illustrate the lines from Coleridge : —
' He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small.
For the dear God who loveth us.
He taade and loveth all.'
A neat suite of dwelling-houses at the corner of Buchanan
Street and Sauchiehall Street was built by subscription,
at a cost of £4000, as a gift to Dr Cleland, author of the
Annals of Glasgow, and bears the name of the Cleland
Testimonial. There is a marble statue of Pitt, by Flax-
man, in the Corporation Gallery, and one by Gibson of
Kirkman Finlay, who did so much to develop Glasgow
trade, in the Merchants' Hall. The Martyrs' Memorial
Fountain in the E end has been already noticed, as well
as some of the numerous monuments in the Necropolis
and other cemeteries.
GLASGOW
Fuhlic Buildings — Municipal and County Brdldiiigs.
— The Council Chambers and Municipal Offices were
long in the Tontine Buildings at the Cross, and were
afterwards transferred to the South Prison Quadrangle
at the foot of Saltmarket. About 1840 it was found
that the premises at the jail were too small, and the
foundation stone of the southern portion of the new
erection, which now occupies the space bomided by
Ingram Street, Hutcheson Street, Wilson Street, and
Brunswick Street, was laid in 1842.* The sheriffs
and their officers, and the council and their ofScers,
all removed to the new building, whicn was iinished
and ready for occupation in 1844. li cost £56,000,
of which £29,000 was paid by the city and £27,000
by the Coimty of Lanark, but this included altera-
tions also at the South Prison Quadrangle. The
western portion of the building was set apart for the
council chamber, the offices of the town-clerk, the city
chamberlain, the burgh fiscal, etc., while the eastern
part was occupied by the sheriffs, the sheriff-clerk, the
county fiscal, etc. At the same time the Merchants'
House having a number of years before sold their pro-
perty in Bridgegate, erected in connection with the
County Buildings a new and handsome hall at a cost of
£10,300. Of this they were subsequently dispossessed
in 1869, when, by the compulsory powers given in their
Act of 1868, the court-house commissioners acquired the
building, and between that time and 1874 the new
buildings were erected to the N at a cost of £90,000,
including also the cost of the extensive alterations on
the old buildings. The three portions of the structure
form one great block. The northern part is occupied by
the'Municipal Buildings, and shows on the N front a fine
porticoed fagade with colossal statuary by Mossman over
and at the sides of the entrance door. They contain
the council chamber (in which is a fine portrait of the
Queen by the late Sir Daniel Macnee), the town-clerk's
office, the city chamberlain's office, and other apart-
ments. The middle part of the buildings was originally
the Merchants' Hall, and has now been converted into
the county offices. The main ft-ont is to Hutcheson
Street, and has a noble hexastyle Corinthian portico
surmounted by a massive entablature with sculptured
subjects on its frieze. The county court-houses form
the southern part of the whole block with the main
front towards Wilson Street, and present there a grand
hexastyle Ionic portico with sculptured basement wall.
At each side of the portico is a small abutment with an
entrance to the interior. There are spacious and com-
modious apartments for the courts and public offices.
The municipality are, however, not yet satisfied, and
have, at a cost of £173,185, acquired a site for new
buildings at the E side of George Square. Competitive
designs for the new buildings were exhibited in the
spring of the present year (18S2), and ere long Glasgow
should possess a new structure worthy of her increasing
greatness. The buildings are under the care of the
Court-house Commissioners, consisting of representatives
of the Town Council and Commissioners of Supply.
Their income for the year ending 31 Aug. was £1270,
15s. 2d., the expenditure £1540, 7s. 6d., the assets
£10,772, 17s. 5d., the debts £11,013, 4s. lid., all apart
from the municipal buildings.
Courts are held in the County Buildings by the sheriff
or one of his six substitutes, for criminal and summary
business on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
every week, and also appeal courts on the same day.
* The Tontine Buildings, in which was the Old To^Tl-Hall, ex-
tending westward from the site of the Old Tolbooth, were erected
in the latter part of last century for the threefold purpose of
Town-Hall, Exchange, and Hotel. They had a spacious arcaded
basement, with a fine range of Ionic pilasters and an interior
piazza, and on the keystones of the arches were the grotesque
sculptured masks, now within the court of the elegant block of
warehouses at the foot of Buchanan Street. The Exchange and
the piazza were long the resort of the chief merchants in the city,
but under tlie operations of the City Improvement Trust subse-
quent to 1870 they were stripped of their civic grandeur, and
deprived of their piazza and ornaments, and converted into shopa
and warehouses. The Old Town-Hall was 55 feet long, 34 wide,
and 25 high.