Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

LANARK
without is a large ungainly structure of 1777, but within
was greatly improved in 1870 at a cost of nearly £1200.
It contains 1800 sittings ; and in a niche above its
principal door is a colossal statue (1S17) of Sir William
Wallace by the young self-taught sculptor, Robert
Forrest. St Leonards Church was built as a chapel of
ease in 1867 at a cost of £2500, and in 1873 was raised
to quoad sacra status. Other places of worship are a
Free church, Hope Street and Bloomgate U.P. churches,
an Evangelical Union chapel, Episcopalian Christ Church
(1858), and St Mary's Roman Catholic church. Of these
Bloomgate U.P. church, rebuilt in 1875, is a First
Pointed edifice, with a tower and spire 90 l'eet high ;
whilst St Mary's, built in 1859 at a cost of £15,000, is
Second Pointed in style and cruciform in plau, con-
sisting of nave, aisles, chancel, sacristy, and tower. The
interior is adorned with many stained-glass windows,
with twelve fine statues, and with a fresco by Doyle of
the 'Last Judgment.' There is a new and tastefully
laid out cemetery, in the centre of which an obelisk, 30
feet high, was erected in 1881 to the memory of the
Lanark Martyrs of 1660-88. A school has existed at
Lanark from 1183 and earlier ; and three mortifications,
for the education of 51 boys attending its grammar-
school, amounted to £212, lis. 4d. in 1881. In that
year the following were the six schools under the burgh
school-board, with accommodation, average attendance,
and grant:— Burgh (366, 163, £132, 14s.), Grammar
(145, 126, £126, 17s.), West (86, 70. £56, 8s.), Mrs
Wilson's Free (75, 56, £45, 5s.), St Mary's Roman
Catholic (370, 191, £174, 18s. 6d.), and Smyllum Roman
Catholic (429, 307, £310, 4s. 6d.). The Smyllum Park
Orphanage, for 400 destitute orphan children of Catholics
in Scotland, is conducted by sisters of charity. A sepa-
rate deaf-mute institution and a new chapel were added
in 1883. The sisters have also charge of a Roman
Catholic hospital (1872), with 30 beds. Another hospital,
the Lanark Infirmary, with 32 beds, is a Scottish Baronial
one-story structure of 1873, designed by the late David
Bryce, R.S.A.
The County Buildings for the upper ward of Lanark-
shire, which figure prominently in the town, and were
erected in 1834-36 at a cost of over £5000, are a chaste
and graceful structure in the Grecian style. They com-
prise the county offices in front, and a prison in the
rear, with 29 cells. The former prison was described in
1834 as being 'in such condition that none need stay in
it but of their own good will.' Behind the Clydesdale
Hotel are the Assembly Rooms (1827) ; and other build-
ings are a town hall, a co-operative hall, a Good
Templars' hall, and large militia barracks, the last f
mile to the SE. Lanark besides has a post office, with
money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph
departments, branches of the Clydesdale, Commercial,
Royal, and British Linen Co.'s Banks, 28 insurance
agencies, 10 hotels, gas-works (1832), a water supply from
a pretty lake (2 x 1 i furl. ) near the racecourse, a reading-
room, and a Liberal Saturday paper, the Lanarkshire,
Examiner (1863). Monday and Tuesday are market
days, and the following is a list of the fairs : — Seeds and
hiring, last Tuesday of February ; grit ewes and hoggs,
Wednesday before first Monday in April ; plants, second
Wednesday of April ; cattle, last Wednesday of May
o. s. ; rough sheep, Monday before last Tuesday in June ;
cattle show, first Tuesday of July ; St James's horse and
lamb fair, last Wednesday of July o. s., and two pre-
ceding days; black-faced crosses and Cheviot lambs,
second Tuesday after the lamb fair ; horses, cattle, and
hiring, Thursday after Falkirk October Tryst ; cattle,
first Wednesday in November o. s. ; general business,
last Tuesday of December. A silver bell was rim for
annually as long ago at least as 1628 ; and the race-
course, 1 mile in circuit and 1J ESE of the town, is one
of the finest in Scotland, being almost a dead level. A
large business is done in connection with the fairs and
markets, and a considerable trade in the supply of
miscellaneous goods to the surrounding country ; whilst
much support is derived from the influx of strangers to
visit the Falls of Clyde. Comparatively little has been
454
Seal of Lanark.
LANARK
done to share in the multifarious and extensive manu-
factures of lower Clydesdale, but the weaving of winceys,
shirtings, and druggets is the staple industry ; and
there are also 3 artificial manure works, a tannery, 2
breweries, a large fancy woodwork establishment, and,
f mile from the town, the extensive factory of the
British Oil and Candle Co.
A royal burgh since the reign of David I. (1124-53),
Lanark is governed by a provost, 3 bailies, a judge of
guild court, a treasurer, and 9
councillors. Sheriff courts are
held every Monday and Thurs-
day during session, debts re-
covery courts every Monday,
and sheriff small debt courts
every Monday during session.
With Falkirk, Airdrie, Hamil-
ton, and Linlithgow, Lanark
returns one member to parlia-
ment. The municipal and
the parliamentary constituency
numbered 690 and 572 in 1883,
wdien the annual value of real
property within the burgh amounted to £13, 399 (£11,691
in 1S75), whilst the corporation revenue was £2119 in
1S82, against £1296 in 1874. Pop. of royal burgh
(18S1) 5874 ; of parliamentary and police burgh (1831)
4266, (1851) 5008, (1871) 5099, (1881) 4910, of whom
2680 were females. Houses in parliamentary burgh
(1881) 958 inhabited, 62 vacant, 9 building.
Lanark has been identified with Ptolemy's Colania, a
town of the Damnonii in the 2d century a.d. , which
Skene, however, places 'near the sources of the Clyde,'
and describes as ' a frontier but apparently unimportant
post.' Nor does Buchanan's statement, that Kenneth
II. in 978 here held an assembly of the estates of the
realm, appear to rest on any sufficient basis. And
Chalmers is certainly wrong in asserting that ' we hear
nothing of any royal castle or place of royal residence
in this city,' for as early as the 12th century royal
charters are known to have been dated from the Castle
of Lanark. This castle it is that figures in the metrical
narratives by Wyntoun and Blind Harry of Sir William
Wallace's first collision with the English, in May 1297.
' He had just taken to wife a virtuous damsel named
Bradfute. She resides in the town of Lanark, where
there is an English garrison ; and as he is a marked
man, from having already resented the insults of the
invaders, it is not safe for him to reside there, and he
must be content with stealthy visits to his bride. One
day, having just heard mass, he encounters some
straggling soldiers, who treat him with ribaldry and
practical jokes. A very animated scene of taunt and
retort, wdiat is vulgarly called chaffing, is given by the
minstrel ; but it must be held as in the style of the fif-
teenth rather than of the thirteenth century. Wallace
bears all with good temper, until a foul jest is flung at
his wife. Then he draws his great sword, and cuts off
the offender's hand. He is joined by a few of his coun-
trymen, and there is a scuffle ; but the English are
many times their number, and they must seek safety.
His own door is opened for Wallace by his wife, and he
escapes through it into the open country. For this
service his poor wife is slain, and then he vows eternal
vengeance. Gathering a few daring hearts round him,
he falls upon the garrison in the night, burns their
quarters, and kills several of them, among the rest
William de Hazelrig, whom Edward had made Earl of
Clydesdale and Sheriff of Ayr.' Thus Dr Hill Burton,
wdio adds that ' the story is not, on the whole, im-
probable : we can easily believe in such a man being
driven desperate by insults and injuries to himself and
to those dear to him. But the latter portion of the
story is confirmed in a curious manner. About sixty
years later, a Northumbrian knight, Sir Thomas de
Grey, had been taken prisoner in the Scots wars, and
was committed to the Castle of Edinburgh. There,
like Raleigh, he bethought him of writing something
like a history of the world ; but it fortunately gave a