Page:Origin and history of Glasgow Streets.djvu/55

 is named in honour of Count Rumford. His name was Benjamin Thomson, and he got the title eonferied upon him by the Elector Palatine. He was a philosopher of the Franklin School.

, opened 1787. It for a time was the most fashionable part of the town. The roof of the portico of Saint Andrew's Church, which stands in the centre, contains the first example in Scotland of what is known in architecture as the flat arch, and it was looked upon as a marvel at the time.

, opened 1771.

was opened in 1782, the first church and the present steeple having been erected two years prior. The church having become unsuitable, it was taken down in 1827 and the present one erected. The name comes from Saint Thanew, whose cell was on the site of the Tron Church in Trongate Street; and, despite statements to the contrary, there is no proof of any building for religious purposes having occupied the square previous to that of 1780. But anterior to the annihilation of all landmarks in the locality by the operations of the G. & S.-W. Railway Co., there was on the east side of Saint Enoch Lane, about midway between Argyle Street and Howard Street, a very old building of three storeys, with crow-stepped gables and small square windows, which apparently had never been glazed; but all of them on the street and first flat had at some time been fitted with iron bars. The walls were thick, and the floor, which had been flagged, was about three feet below street level. This building, when erected, had apparently faced the east, as there was a built-up arched doorway that had been garnished with pilasters in the back wall, which fronted a small yard that intervened between it and a tenement in Saint Enoch Wynd. It had all the appearance of having been a conventual or monastic institute, and from this fact, and its contiguity to the square, may have arisen the statement as to the existence of a previous church; and the only reason that can be ascribed for this ancient mass of stone and lime having been overlooked by local archaeologists is from the fact that it was the back of the building which fronted