Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/205

 i 2 s. ix. AUG. 27. 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 163 valley, runs so far, yt unless he had rais'd an artificial Mount of a Mile perpendicular height, and 2 miles in length to have planted upon, 'twas not to be done ; for ye mountains beyond ye valley are too barren and ye soil too loose and Chiverry to bear anything. And I know not but, in ye humour he was in, he might have gone so far as | to have spent ye best part of his Estate upon such i a Mount, if his choice had not determin'd him | to leave yt side expos'd as a foil to ye other works, ! and to shew ye spectator from his Castle wt ; difficulties he had conquer'd. 'Tis very remark- able yt tho' ye House and Gardens cost ye Family 60 thousand pds and more, none of 'em Lodg'd 6 nights in ye House. June ye 4th, 9 in ye Evens. Glasgow is a neater Town yn any I ever saw or j heard describ'd in Engd. Ye streets spacious and j exceeding well pav'd ; ye 2 grand Streets cross j each other at right angles, and ye buildings yt fm ; ye 4 angles are very genteel, but not so exactly i regular as in Northampton : there's 2 Rows of ! Piazza's run parallel to each other for abt 250 yards in one of ye streets ; but those are all that j are so much talked off. Not a Coach or a chair to i be seen abt ye Town. No waggons and very few wheel Carriages have been seen by us yet, either at Dumfries, Hamilton or ys Place : and 'tis reasonable to believe yt ye smoothness of their Pavemts is owing to ye disuse of wheel carriages ; at ye same time, that very smoothness renders wheel carriages useless ; Trail carts and sledges running easily along. The entrance to ye College yt fronts ye High Street has something more magnificent yn any of of ye old colleges in Oxon, excepting great Tom but each of ye 2 Quadrangles are but about ye size of Edmd Hall ; ye Building pretty regular, but not grand. They are building a 3d Quad- rangle yt will be as big as ye other two, 4 or 5 of ye Stair Cases are finish'd and have been inhabited a [? week] or two ; ye Buildings are very neat, somewt like our North Quadrangle on ye New Coll : side, and are to be solely appropriated to ye use of ye Professors and their familys, each family having a Stair case to itself consisting of 3 stories with 3 sash windows on ye two upper floors, 5 on ye floor below. Their publick Hall is neater yn any of our old ones in Oxon, and wn ye Library, wch is above it is remov'd to another place, and ye floor thereof taken away, and ye height of it added to ye height of their Hall, wth a range of Attic windows above for an upper light ; and their Oratory (where they train ye [? Minis- ters] up to compositions of extempore Prayer and Sermons of two hours long) is taken away, and ye length of it added to ye length of their Hall, wth a neat Marble Chimneypiece at each end of ye Room and clean Oak wainscot carry' d quite round ye room, very like wt we have in our Hall,* wn all ys is done, wch they are going abt with all speed, 'twill be inferior to no Hall in Oxon for grandeur but ours and Ch. Ch. Their Library, we vas told, containd abt 5 thousd vollumes of well collected Books. Our frd excus'd himself fm shewing it us on acct of ye disorder ye Books were in agst their removal, and it did not become us to press to see it. We were entertain'd wth a sight of about a Dozen stones wth Romn In- scriptions, presented to ye College by some of ye Scotch Nobility, dug out of Antonius's Wall, yt runs from ye Fyrth of ye Clydde to ye Fyrth of Forth, call'd in Gordon's Geography by ye vulgar name of Graham's Dike. The College had men at work at yt very tune digging out some more, and carts were dispatched yt day to convey some of 'em home : and all yt Gratis : For ye Anti- quarys of ye Coll : and neighbourhood have so far encourag'd in ye country an implicit faith in ye value of those stones, yt they assist wth as much readiness in conveying one of 'em to ye Coll : to be deposited by ye rest, as ye [? Papists] wd do in carrying ye thumb or arm of a St in procession to ye shrine where ye rest of ye Body lays. We read all ye Inscriptions carefully, but ye import of 'em was no more yn ys, yt such a company finished so many paces of ye wall for their share. The pleasure of leaving yt memoran- dum to posterity being ye only reward extraordi- nary allow' d to ye soldiers for ye mighty labour such work must have cost 'em. A Reward suffi- cient had they foreseen how fond ye prest age wd prove in admiring the awkward shape of an E or a U cut by an ignorant Romn Soldier yt was not scholar enough to make a F Mason ! But peace ! break thee off see there an Antiquary is just entering ye room, and good manners will' not allow me to continue writing wn our Frd is come to take a bottle wth us, especially in ridicule of ye most fashionable modern accomplisht of wch M r Symson is so much a master. V. B. CROWTHEK-BEYNON, F.S.A. (To be concluded.) GLASS-PAINTERS OF YORK. (See 12 S. viii. 127, 323, 364, 406, 442, 485 ; ix. 21, 61, 103.) VIII. THE THOMPSON FAMILY. RICARDTJS THOMSON, glasyer. Free of the city 1492. The history of this family is very interesting, as the period during which they lived and worked (1492-1613) comprised that of the Reformation ; and they and their apprentices to whom they taught the business evidently played a prominent part in preserving and con- tinuing the art of glass-painting from medieval times until the period of the Renaissance was well advanced. Their work was carried on after them by the Gyles family, some of whom were contem- porary with them, as they themselves had previously been with the Pettys, and most probably their pupils also. Nothing is known of Richard Thompson with the exception of the date on which he was free of the city. William Thompson, glazier (free 1496, died 1539), and Nicholas Thomp- son (mentioned in William Thompson's will) were, probably his brothers ; and
 * At Queen's College, Oxford.