Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

GLASGOW
Port, at the Bishops' Palace ; on the NW, Kottenrow
Port ; while all the adjoining ground now occupied by
Bell Street, Candleriggs, King Street, and Princes Street
was occupied by corn-fields ; but yet, notwithstanding
this, there had been a very marked change in its position
and condition. As we have seen, it was, at the time of
the Reformation, eleventh on the roll of Scottish burghs,
and was stented for £13, 10s. Scots ; in 1695 it stood
second (Edinburgh being its only superior), and was
stented for £1800 Scots. The population, which at
the Reformation was about 4500, had, by 1600, become
about 7000. In 1660 this had grown to 14,678, but the
troubles of the next 28 years had such an injurious
effect that, in 1688, this had decreased to 11,948. In
1701 there were 9994 ' examinable persons ' recorded in
the city, and this name must have applied apparently to
younger people than would now be termed adults, for a
little later (1708) the total population is returned at
12,766. A new tolbooth had been erected near the
Cross in 1626, superseding the old one at the foot of
the High Street. It was a fine picturesque building,
is described by a contemporary writer as ' a very sump-
tuous, regulated, uniform fabric, large and lofty, most
industriously and artificially carved from the very founda-
tion to the superstructure, to the great admiration of
strangers,' and as, 'without exception, the paragon of
beauty in the west. ' All that now remains of both struc-
tures is the Cross steeple, which has been happily pre-
served from the destruction that has overtaken so many
of the old buildings of Glasgow, though, in 1814, it had
a narrow escape, and such a fate was only averted by a
majority of votes in the council of the day. The Cross
itself, which had replaced the older one at the end of
Rotten Row, was removed in 1659 as ' altogether de-
faced,' and all trace of it is lost. The houses along the
streets leading from the Cross had piazzas. Defoe,
writing of Glasgow, in 1723, says ' The City consists of
Four principal Streets in the Form of a Cross, with the
Town-House and Market Place in the Middle, where as
you walk you see the whole Town at once. The Houses
are of Free Stone, of an Equal height, and supported
with Pillars, and the Streets being spacious and well
pav'd, add to the Beauty of the Place.' He also adds
that ' this City is strictly Presbyterian, and is the best
affected to the Government of any in Scotland. '
It is a somewhat curious contrast to the present state
of affairs that in the 17th and the beginning of the 18th
centuries Glasgow was noted for its beauty. One of
Cromwell's soldiers describes it, in 1650, as 'not so
big or rich yet,' to all 'a much sweeter and more de-
lyghtful place than Edinburgh.' Another English
traveller named Franck, whose opinion of the tolbooth
has been already given, and who visited the city a little
later, speaks in high terms of ' the splendour and dig-
nity of this city of Glasgow, which snrpasseth most, if
not all, the corporations in Scotland,' and also mentions
with approval 'the exact decorum in every society.'
This praise may be accepted with the less hesitation
when we consider that the writer was not on the whole
favourably impressed with Scotland, and did not hesi-
tate to say so. 'A satirist,' says Sir Walter Scott,
' with regard to every other place Franck describes
Glasgow as the " nonsuch of Scotland," where an
"English florist may pick up a posie."' Morer, who
wrote in 1689, says, in the work already quoted, that
' Glasgow has the reputation of the finest town in Scot-
land, not excepting Edinburgh ; ' and Defoe, in his
Journey Through Scotland, published in 1723, says
almost enthusiastically, 'Glasgow is the beautifullest
little City I have seen in Britain ; it stands deliriously
on the banks of the river Clyde, over which there is a
fair Stone Bridge of Eight Arches.' And in a subsequent
edition he says still more in its praise, ' the four princi-
pal streets are the fairest for breadth and the finest built
that I have ever seen in one city together. The houses
are_ all of stone, and generally uniform in height as well
as in front. The lower stories for the most part stand
on vast square Doric columns with arches which open
into the shops, adding to the strength as well as beauty
43
GLASGOW
of the building. In a word, 'tis one of the cleanliest,
most beautiful, and best built cities in Great Britain.'
Defoe's description is later than the Union, and about
the time when it was beginning to bear fruit, but
the others are earlier, and yet alike they give us a
picture of Glasgow still rural, but beginning to have the
germs of its future greatness in its increasing trade, which
was, in Defoe's time, quickly outgrowing tie little com-
mencement that had, in the beginning of the 18th cen-
tury, been made in the manufacture of tobacco, the
refining of sugar, and the making of soap.
The growing importance of the city is evident from
the fact that in 1702 the provost, Hugh Montgomerie
of Busby, was one of the commissioners appointed to go
to London to carry on negotiations for a treaty of Union,
and the council agreed that the city should bear the ex-
pense of his journey. Notwithstanding this little mark
of attention, the Union proposal was received by the
inhabitants of Glasgow, particularly by the lower orders,
with as much bitterness as elsewhere throughout the
country. The populace of Glasgow, with a pet griev-
ance of their own because, instead of returning a mem-
ber of parliament for themselves, they were in future
only to share one with Dumbarton, Renfrew, and
Rutherglen, became so much excited that the magis-
trates deemed it necessary to issue a proclamation that
not more than three persons should assemble together
after sunset. A most injudicious and inflammatory ser-
mon, preached by the Rev. James Clark, minister of
the Tron Church, on 7 Nov. 1706, a sacramental Fast-
day, was regarded as a direct encouragement and injunc-
tion to insurrection, and caused the murmurs of discon-
tent, to which the opposition had been hitherto con-
fined, to rise into open violence. Within twe hours
after the sermon drums were beat through the streets,
and the people, gathering in immense numbers, fairly
overturned the authority of the magistrates. Finding
that the magistrates and council refused their request
to present a remonstrance to parliament on the subject
of the Union, they attacked the council-house and the
residence of the provost, Mr Aird. After a short lull
there was a fresh outbreak, when the mob disarmed the
town-guard, stormed the tolbooth, and seized the town's
arms, which consisted of 250 halberts. With • these
they marched about the streets, forcing their way into
the houses of those supposed to be favourable to the
Union, searching for arms, and plundering at the same
time. The house of the provost was rifled, and he him-
self, attacked on the street, only escaped with his life by
timely concealment and subsequent flight to Edinburgh.
The rioters, who had adopted a sort of rude military
system, then formed the bold resolution of marching
to the capital and dispersing the parliament, and they
actually set out for this purpose under the leadership of a
Jacobite publican named Finlay. Starting with a body
of men by no means numerous, Finlay was met at Kil-
syth by the intelligence that cavalry and infantry were
already on their way from Edinburgh to put down the
riot. At first, nothing dismayed, he determined to
fight, and sent to Glasgow for 400 men who had been
left behind ; but as they did not come, the disappointed
leader and his companions returned to Glasgow, and,
laying down their arms, separated. This was the end of
disturbances that had lasted for four weeks, and the
publican and some of the other leaders were arrested
immediately after and carried to Edinburgh. Techni-
cally they had forfeited their lives, as being guilty of
high treason ; and it says much for the strength and
moderation of Queen Anne's government that shortly
after the Union Act passed into law, they were all
liberated without further punishment than their tem-
porary imprisonment. Had there been competent
leaders the insurrection might have proved formidable,
but no man of mark and influence in the W of Scotland
had any connection with it, and but a very short time
elapsed before the Glasgow citizens became fully alive
to the advantages the Union had brought them in the
opening of the American trade, etc. ; in fact we may
almost say that it was at this time that Glasgow entered
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