Page:EB1911 - Volume 12.djvu/96

 manufacturers alike have been constant patrons of art, and their liberality may have had some influence on the younger painters who, towards the close of the 19th century, broke away from tradition and, stimulated by training in the studios of Paris, became known as the “Glasgow school.” The art gallery and museum in Kelvingrove Park, which was built at a cost of £250,000 (partly derived from the profits of the exhibitions held in the park in 1888 and 1901), is exceptionally well appointed. The collection originated in 1854 in the purchase of the works of art belonging to Archibald M‘Lellan, and was supplemented from time to time by numerous bequests of important pictures. It was housed for many years in the Corporation galleries in Sauchiehall Street. The Institute of Fine Arts, in Sauchiehall Street, is mostly devoted to periodical exhibitions of modern art. There are also pictures on exhibition in the People’s Palace on Glasgow Green, which was built by the corporation in 1898 and combines an art gallery and museum with a conservatory and winter garden, and in the museum at Camphill, situated within the bounds of Queen’s Park. The library and Hunterian museum in the university are mostly reserved for the use of students. The faculty of procurators possess a valuable library which is housed in their hall, an Italian Renaissance building, in West George Street. In Bath Street there are the Mechanics’ and the Philosophical Society’s libraries, and the Physicians’ is in St Vincent Street. Miller Street contains the headquarters of the public libraries. The premises once occupied by the water commission have been converted to house the Mitchell library, which grew out of a bequest of £70,000 by Stephen Mitchell, largely reinforced by further gifts of libraries and funds, and now contains upwards of 100,000 volumes. It is governed by the city council and has been in use since 1877. Another building in this street accommodates both the Stirling and Baillie libraries. The Stirling, with some 50,000 volumes, is particularly rich in tracts of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the Baillie was endowed by George Baillie, a solicitor who, in 1863, gave £18,000 for educational objects. The Athenaeum in St George’s Place, an institution largely concerned with evening classes in various subjects, contains an excellent library and reading-room.

Charities.—The old Royal Infirmary, designed by Robert Adam and opened in 1794, adjoining the cathedral, occupies the site of the archiepiscopal palace, the last portion of which was removed towards the close of the 18th century. The chief architectural feature of the infirmary is the central dome forming the roof of the operating theatre. On the northern side are the buildings of the medical school attached to the institution. The new infirmary commemorates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. A little farther north, in Castle Street, is the blind asylum. The Western Infirmary is to some extent used for the purposes of clinical instruction in connexion with the university, to which it stands in immediate proximity. Near it is the Royal hospital for sick children. To the south of Queen’s Park is Victoria Infirmary, and close to it the deaf and dumb institution. On the bank of the river, not far from the south-eastern boundary of the city, is the Belvedere hospital for infectious diseases, and at Ruchill, in the north, is another hospital of the same character opened in 1900. The Royal asylum at Gartnavel is situated near Jordanhill station, and the District asylum at Gartloch (with a branch at West Muckroft) lies in the parish of Cadder beyond the north-eastern boundary. There are numerous hospitals exclusively devoted to the treatment of special diseases, and several nursing institutions and homes. Hutcheson’s Hospital, designed by David Hamilton and adorned with statues of the founders, is situated in Ingram Street, and by the increase in the value of its lands has become a very wealthy body. George Hutcheson (1580–1639), a lawyer in the Trongate near the tolbooth, who afterwards lived in the Bishop’s castle, which stood close to the spot where the Kelvin enters the Clyde, founded the hospital for poor old men. His brother Thomas (1589–1641) established in connexion with it a school for the lodging and education of orphan boys, the sons of burgesses. The trust, through the growth of its funds, has been enabled to extend its educational scope and to subsidize schools apart from the charity.

Monuments.—Most of the statues have been erected in George Square. They are grouped around a fluted pillar 80 ft. high, surmounted by a colossal statue of Sir Walter Scott by John Ritchie (1809–1850), erected in 1837, and include Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort (both equestrian) by Baron Marochetti; James Watt by Chantrey; Sir Robert Peel, Thomas Campbell the poet, who was born in Glasgow, and David Livingstone, all by John Mossman; Sir John Moore, a native of Glasgow, by Flaxman, erected in 1819; James Oswald, the first member returned to parliament for the city after the Reform Act of 1832; Lord Clyde (Sir Colin Campbell), also a native, by Foley, erected in 1868; Dr Thomas Graham, master of the mint, another native, by Brodie; Robert Burns by G. E. Ewing, erected in 1877, subscribed for in shillings by the working men of Scotland; and William Ewart Gladstone by Hamo Thornycroft, unveiled by Lord Rosebery in 1902. In front of the Royal Exchange stands the equestrian monument of the duke of Wellington. In Cathedral Square are the statues of Norman Macleod, James White and James Arthur, and in front of the Royal infirmary is that of Sir James Lumsden, lord provost and benefactor. Nelson is commemorated by an obelisk 143 ft. high on the Green, which was erected in 1806 and is said to be a copy of that in the Piazza del Popolo at Rome. One of the most familiar statues is the equestrian figure of William III. in the Trongate, which was presented to the town in 1735 by James Macrae (1677–1744), a poor Ayrshire lad who had amassed a fortune in India, where he was governor of Madras from 1725 to 1730.

Recreations.—Of the theatres the chief are the King’s in Bath Street, the Royal and the Grand in Cowcaddens, the Royalty and Gaiety in Sauchiehall Street, and the Princess’s in Main Street. Variety theatres, headed by the Empire in Sauchiehall Street, are found in various parts of the town. There is a circus in Waterloo Street, a hippodrome in Sauchiehall Street and a zoological garden in New City Road. The principal concert halls are the great hall of the St Andrew’s Halls, a group of rooms belonging to the corporation; the City Hall in Candleriggs, the People’s Palace on the Green, and Queen’s Rooms close to Kelvingrove Park. Throughout winter enormous crowds throng the football grounds of the Queen’s Park, the leading amateur club, and the Celtic, the Rangers, the Third Lanark and other prominent professional clubs.

Parks and Open Spaces.—The oldest open space is the Green (140 acres), on the right bank of the river, adjoining a densely-populated district. It once extended farther west, but a portion was built over at a time when public rights were not vigilantly guarded. It is a favourite area for popular demonstrations, and sections have been reserved for recreation or laid out in flower-beds. Kelvingrove Park, in the west end, has exceptional advantages, for the Kelvin burn flows through it and the ground is naturally terraced, while the situation is beautified by the adjoining Gilmore Hill with the university on its summit. The park was laid out under the direction of Sir Joseph Paxton, and contains the Stewart fountain, erected to commemorate the labours of Lord Provost Stewart and his colleagues in the promotion of the Loch Katrine water scheme. The other parks on the right bank are, in the north, Ruchill (53 acres), acquired in 1891, and Springburn (53 acres), acquired in 1892, and, in the east, Alexandra Park (120 acres), in which is laid down a nine-hole golf-course, and Tollcross (82 acres), beyond the municipal boundary, acquired in 1897. On the left bank Queen’s Park (130 acres), occupying a commanding site, was laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton, and considerably enlarged in 1894 by the enclosure of the grounds of Camphill. The other southern parks are Richmond (44 acres), acquired in 1898, and named after Lord Provost Sir David Richmond, who opened it in 1899; Maxwell, which was taken over on the annexation of Pollokshields in 1891; Bellahouston (176 acres), acquired in 1895; and Cathkin Braes (50 acres), 3m. beyond the south-eastern boundary, presented to the city in 1886 by James Dick, a manufacturer, containing “Queen Mary’s stone,” a point which commands a view of the lower valley of the Clyde. In the north-western district of the town 40 acres between Great Western Road and the Kelvin are devoted to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which became public property in 1891. They are beautifully laid out, and contain a great range of hothouses. The gardens owed much to Sir William Hooker, who was regius professor of botany in Glasgow University before his appointment to the directorship of Kew Gardens.

Communications.—The North British railway terminus is situated in Queen Street, and consists of a high-level station (main line) and a low-level station, used in connexion with the City & District line, largely underground, serving the northern side of the town, opened in 1886. The Great Northern and North-Eastern railways use the high-level line of the N.B.R., the three companies forming the East Coast Joint Service. The Central terminus of the Caledonian railway in Gordon Street, served by the West Coast system (in which the London & North-Western railway shares), also comprises a high-level station for the main line traffic and a low-level station for the Cathcart District railway, completed in 1886 and made circular for the southern side and suburbs in 1894, and also for the connexion between Maryhill and Rutherglen, which is mostly underground. Both the underground lines communicate with certain branches of the main line, either directly or by change of carriage. The older terminus of the Caledonian railway in Buchanan Street now takes the northern and eastern traffic. The terminus of the Glasgow & South-Western railway company in St Enoch Square serves the country indicated in its title, and also gives the Midland railway of England access to the west coast and Glasgow. The Glasgow Subway—an underground cable passenger line, 6 m. long, worked in two tunnels and passing below the Clyde twice—was opened in 1896. Since no more bridge-building will be sanctioned west of the railway bridge at the Broomielaw, there are at certain points steam ferry boats or floating bridges for conveying vehicles across the harbour, and at Stobcross there is a subway for foot and wheeled traffic. Steamers, carrying both goods and passengers, constantly leave the Broomielaw quay for the piers and ports on the river and firth, and the islands and sea lochs of Argyllshire. The city is admirably served by tramways which penetrate every populous district and cross the river by Glasgow and Albert bridges.

Trade.—Natural causes, such as proximity to the richest field of coal and ironstone in Scotland and the vicinity of hill streams of pure water, account for much of the great development of trade in Glasgow. It was in textiles that the city showed its earliest predominance, which, however, has not been maintained, owing, it is alleged, to the shortage of female labour. Several cotton mills are still worked, but the leading feature in the trade has always been the manufacture