Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

GLASGOW
open-air public meetings. In summer the river here
is studded with pleasure boats of all sorts, and on the
river bank close to the St Andrew's Suspension Bridge
is the Humane Society's House. Previous to those
modern days when wealth and fashion moved westward,
the Green used to be the summer rendezvous of the pride
and beauty of the city, but now it is often far froni being
a pleasant place, for the forest of factory chimneys on
both sides, in certain states of the wind, roll over on
the Green volumes of smoke in black and bitter abund-
ance. The number of springs that abounded in it made
it from an early date a public washing and bleaching
green, and part of it is still set aside for this purpose.
It was the field for all grand military exercises and dis-
plays. Here Regent Moray's army encamped before
Langside ; here Prince Charles Edward reviewed his
army on the retreat from Derby; here, in the stirring
times when George III. was king and almost every
shopkeeper was a soldier, drill was carried on; and here
the modern volunteers, too, parade from time to time,
about 6000 of them having been reviewed on the Green
by the Prince of Wales in 1876. At the W entrance,
opposite the Justiciary Court-House, is a small granite
drinking fountain erected by some temperance advo-
cates to commemorate the services of Sir William Collins
to the temperance cause. It has, on the W side, a
bronze panel with a medallion portrait of Sir William.
Farther E is a handsome terra-cotta fountain, shown
at the Industrial Exhibition of 1888 as a specimen of
Doulton work and afterwards presented to the city by
Sir Henry Doul ton, and erected here at hisexpense in 1890.
Designed after the style of the time of Francis I., it is for
size and elaboration of treatment unrivalled in this ma-
terial. The scheme of modelling is intended to represent
the British Empire, the groups at the base being emblem-
atic of India, Canada, South Africa, and Australia, while
in niches round the central shaft are statues of a sailor
and of soldiers of the Grenadier Guards, the Black
Watch, and the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the whole being
surmounted by a statue of the Queen. The diameter of
the outer basin is 70 feet, and the height of the whole
is 46 feet. Farther E is the Macdonald Fountain,
originally erected by some admirers of Hugh Macdonald
on Gleniffer Braes at ' the bonnie wee well on the breist
o' the brae,' but afterwards removed by the subscribers
to its present position on account of the vandalism with
which it was treated in its place of solitude. A foun-
tain in memory of Bailie James Martin was erected in
1895 on the slope facing Monteith Row. The gateway
at the London Street entrance on the N, erected in
1S93 at the expense of one of the magistrates, is an
adaptation of the Ingram Street front of the old
Assembly Rooms, removed to make way for the south
wing of the General Post Office. A People's Palace,
after the style of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, was
erected on the Green in 1895-97, and it is further pro-
posed to enlarge the park by the acquisition of the
vacant ground opposite it on the S side of the river,
the two portions to be connected by foot bridges.
The Kelvingrove or West End Park lies along the
banks of the Kelvin, between Woodside and Sandyford.
Originally the park was only on the E side, and was
formed from lands on the old estates of Kelvingrove
and Woodside, purchased by the town council in 1S53
for this purpose at a cost of £99,569. A portion of the
ground was, however, set aside for feus in so judicious a
manner that it affords fair promise of ultimately reim-
bursing the total cost. The lands comprise a tabular
hill on the E side, with rapid slopes on the Bf and S,
and a longer but still sharp slope on the W down to
the Kelvin, from which there is an undulating rise to
Gilmorehill with the University buildings. The por-
tion of the ground on the W side of the Kelvin was
acquired from the University authorities. The part
set apart for feuing includes all the top of the hill to
the E, which is now occupied by the magnificent houses
that form Park Circus, Park Street, Park Terrace, and
Park Quadrant. The ground was laid out, and the
walks, drives, and shrubberies arranged according to
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GLASGOW
designs by Sir Joseph Paxton. On the crest of the high
ground opposite Park Street West is a lofty flagstaff,
with — at its base — a mortar and two cannons captured
at Sebastopol. From this point, as well as from the
higher walks and terraces, there are good views along
the river and across to Renfrewshire. In 1881 the lands
of Clayslaps, Overnewton, and Kelvinbank (comprising
19 acres) were added to the park at an expense of
£66,626. The total area now is 85 acres, and the total
cost was £144,571.
The Queen's Park lies on the S side, about 1J mile
straight S from Glasgow Bridge, along Bridge Street,
Eglinton Street, and Victoria Road, and close to Cross-
hill. It was opened in 1862, and occupies chiefly a
rising-ground or low broad-based hill. The entrance is
at the end of Victoria Road, and from a highly orna-
mental gateway a broad path, broken near the centre
by a massive granite staircase, leads to the flagstaff on
the summit of the hill. The plans for laying it out were
prepared by Sir Joseph Paxton. A considerable portion
of it is under grass, on which visitors may wander as
freely as on the Green, while the rest is covered with
shrubberies and clumps of young trees resembling those
in Kelvingrove Park. From the flagstaff on the summit
there is a very fine view. On the N the city of Glasgow
spreads out in all its length from Partick to Tollcross,
while beyond are the Campsie Hills. Farther to the
left are the wooded heights above Kilpatriek, and if the
atmosphere be clear the distant Ben Lomond may be
seen above and beyond them. On the right is the Vale
of Clyde, the valley of the Cart, and the Cathkin Braes.
The wooded knoll of Camphill, where Regent Murray
encamped, and the view westward from which is very
fine, is now included in the park, and the ground on the
SE was the scene of the battle of Langside. The estate
of Camphill (58 acres) was in 1894 purchased by the
city from the patrons of Hutchesons' Hospital for
£63,000. The area of the park is now 148 acres. A
little beyond the S gate of the park a handsome pillar
was erected by public subscription in 1887 as a memorial
of the battle of Langside.
Alexandra Park lies at the E end of the city, adjacent
to the NE side of Dennistoun, and about 1J mile NE
of the junction of High Street and Duke Street. Part
of it, extending to 74 acres, was opened in 1870-72,
and other 16 acres were added in 1891 by purchase,
when the boundary was extended to the Cumbernauld
Road — the remaining 26 acres of the purchase being
reserved for feuing. The ground was purchased, and
this park formed, by the City Improvement Trust under
the 1866 Act, but the care of it has since devolved on
the council under the ' Glasgow Public Parks Act, 1859.'
The approach from the W from Castle Street, known
as the Alexandra Parade, nearly a mile long and 80
feet wide, was constructed chiefly at the expense of
the late Mr. Dennistoun of Golfhill.
In 1886 a park of 49 acres on the ridge of Cathkin Braes,
some 3 miles to the SE of Glasgow, was presented to the
city by Mr James Dick, with the condition that it should
in all time coming be kept in its natural state; and in 1895
a piece of ground at Bellahouston, 178 acres in extent,
was acquired by the corporation from the Steven Trus-
tees. It was formally opened in 1896. The inhabit-
ants of Govan and Kinning Park also benefit by this
the largest of the Glasgow Parks. In the same year
Tollcross House and grounds (82 acres) were acquired by
the Glasgow authorities as a public park, which was
opened by the Lord Provost in 1897.
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kelvinside, on the N
side of Great Western Road, were long carried on by the
Royal Botanic Institution ; but, owing to lack of sup-
port, this society became involved in pecuniary difficul-
ties, and the feuing of the ground was only avoided by
the aid of the Corporation of the unextended city of
Glasgow. When the extension of the municipal bound-
aries took place in 1891, the Gardens passed into the
full possession of the city as one of the public parks, and
they have since been extended by the incorporation
within them of the open slope on the E side of the
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