Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

DUNDEE.
373
noucment, what it wants in the neat forms and ele-
gant attractions of simple beauty. Its exterior, also,
and its general grouping, and its richness of situation
in the core of a brilliant landscape, eminently render
it, as seen from the Fife side of the Tay, or from
Broughty ferry-road, the justly lauded "Bonny
Dundee" of song, and Ail-lec, "the pleasant" or
"the beautiful" of Highland predilection. In a
military point of view .it is accessible on all' sides,
and is' entirely commanded by the neighbouring
heights, so as to be quite indefensible; but as. re-
gards commerce, comfort, and beauty, it is enriched
by its singularly advantageous position on the Tay,
and sheltered and adorned by the eminences among
which it is cradled.
The most bustling and important part of the town
is the High-street, called also. the market-place, and
the Cross. This is an oblong square, or rectangle,
360 feet long, and 100 feet broad, wearing much of
that opulent and commercially great and dignified ap-
pearance which characterises the Trongate or Ar-
gyle-street of Glasgow, or even the less crowded
parts of the great thoroughfares of London. The
houses are of freestone, four stories high, rich and
gaudy in their shops, and generally regular and mo-
dern in their structure, though in two or three in-
stances, surmounted on the front by the gable-end
construction. On the south side, projecting several
feet from the line of the other buildings, stands the
Town hall. This is a fine Roman structure, erected
in 1734; but, being built of a mouldering, dark-
coloured stone, it has a dingy and -somewhat de-
faced appearance. Beneath, it lies open in piazzas,
and above, it towers up in a spire of about 140 feet in
height. At each end of the High-street, is a build-
ing which closes up the wide and stirring area of
the rectangle, but allows, on both sides, sufficient
space for thoroughfares into the adjoining streets.
That which occupies the east end, is the Trades'
hall, dividing the commencement of the Seagate
from that of Murray-gate. It is a neat though
plain building, adorned in the front with Ionic pil-
lars, and surmounted by an elegant cupola. The
Seagate, one of the streets of the ancient town,
and formerly the abode of the Guthries, the Afflecks,
the Brigtons, the Burnsides, and other principal fa-
milies, is a long, sinuous, and very narrow street, ex-
tending away to Wallace burn. The line of street
is then continued to the eastward, through tne
Crofts and Carolina port, till it merges in the road
to Broughty ferry. South of the Seagate are the
Gas works, and the East and the Tay foundries.
Murray-gate, opening on the northern end of the
trades' hall, is narrow and incommodious at its en-
trance, but soon expands in width, and assumes a
pleasing appearance of well-built and somewhat re-
gular lines of houses. In this street are banking-
houses and several other public offices, and also the
quarters of the carriers to the east and the north.
At Wellgate-port, the eastern termination of Mur-
ray-gate, the street forks into two, — the Cowgate,
which runs eastward, and the Wellgate, which runs
northward, forming a straight line with Bonnet. hill.
The Cowgate, more remarkable for business than
any of the other thoroughfares, and virtually the
exchange of the town, has some handsome buildings,
most of which are devoted to commerce, and is
adorned at its east end with a venerable archway,
originally one of the town gates, where the reformer
Wishart preached during the prevalence of the plague
in 1544, the archway or gate serving to keep the
infected and the uninfected in separate crowds.
From the Cowgate, Queen's-street, St. Roque's-
lane, and the Sugar-house wynd, lead off to the
Seagate. King-street subdivides and contracts the
Cowgate, and breaks off at an acute angle from its
north side, running north-eastward to Wallace burn,
and there merges in the great north road, by way of
Arbroath and Montrose, to Aberdeen. In King-
street stands the royal infirmary, built in 1798, on
an elevated situation sloping to the south, well-
detached from other buildings, and having a prome-
nade for convalescents. The Wellgate rises gently
from the Murray-gate, and, on market-days, is a
scene of bustling and tumultuous business. At the
head of the Wellgate is the Lady well, whence the
street has its name, and which draws ample supplies
of excellent water from various springs on the high
grounds. From this point Buckle-maker wynd —
formerly the seat of a craft whence it derived its
name, but which is now extinct — goes off at right
angles and extends to Wallace burn. An extensive
rising ground lying northward of this wynd, and
called Forebank, is adorned with numerous elegant
villas and gardens. On a line with Wellgate, and
mounting up the ascent, Bonnet hill rejoices in the
additional names of the Rottenrow and the Hill-
town of Dundee, and stretches away over the accli-
vity on to the lands of Clepington; but it has a
motley and grotesque appearance, and, though the
seat of very extensive manufactures, consists gener-
ally of ill-built houses, confusedly interspersed with
cloth factories. Maxwelltown, a suburb of recent
origin, occupies the grounds which lie between Hill-
town and the villa of Hillbank, to the northward of
Forebank. Opposite to Buckle-maker wynd, Dud-
hope wynd, which forms the northern boundary of
the Chapelshade, breaks off to the west, and runs
-along nearly half-a-mile, terminating at the bar-
racks. '
From the High-street, to which we now return,
Castle-street goes off at right angles with the com-
mencement of the Seagate, and leads down to the
harbour. This street contains several fine build-
ings; and is the site of the theatre and an Episco-
palian chapel, the lower part of the latter edifice
containing the office of the Dundee bank. At the
south-east corner of • Castle-street stands the ex-
change coffee-room,.— a commodious and beautiful
building, having a spacious opening to the west, and
erected by a body of subscribers at an expense of
.£9,000. Its western front, ,oa the basement story,
has Doric pillars, boldly relieved by deep recesses of
the doors and windows; and, on the second story,
is in a style of the Ionic order, more ornate than
what usually occurs. The reading-room is 73 feet
by 38, and is 30 feet in height. From the south-
west corner of the High-street, and parallel with
Castle-street, Crichton-street leadls down to the
green-market, and on to Earl Grey's dock. Oppo-
site to the town-hall,, and in a direction the reverse
of Castle and Crichton streets, a splendid street has
recently been built, combining uniformity with ele-
gance, and rivalling, in the beauty of its buildings,
some of the admired parts of the Scottish metropo-
lis. The splendour of Reform-street — the name
imposed on this public-spirited and tasteful addition
to the thoroughfares of the burgh — is greatly en-
hanced by the magnificent appearance of the new
public seminaries, which close it up on the north,
and look down along its area. This edifice is in the
Doric style of architecture, and has its portico or
central part copied from the exquisite model of the
Parthenon of Athens. A double-columned gateway,
closed in by an iron-palisadoed wall which encircles
a beautiful shrubbery, leads to the principal entrance.
The building contains a room 42 feet by 40 for
classes studying the higher departments of science,
another of the same dimensions fitied up as a mu-
seum, one 37 feet by 30 for the junior classes, au