Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/112

Rh GLASGOW. 101 GLASGOW. Thursday markets weekly, together with several other rights and immunities, which raised Glasgow to the position of an influential city, even at that early period of her history. The length of the cathedral from E. to W. is 319 feet by 63 feet in width. The height of the nave is 85 feet, of the choir 90, and of the spire, which stands upon a tower, 225 feet. The building is sup- ported by 147 pillars, and has 159 windows, some of which have been very recently restored, as also have been various other portions of the sacred edifice. There are certain indications that the noble structure was once intended to have been cruciform, but there are now no transepts remaining. On the S. side, however, is a projec- tion, which was added to the church by Bishop Blackader, (temp. James IV.), and which was for some time used for purposes of burial, but which many, with every appearance of probability, conjecture to have been a transept. If, however, this be so, there is no correspond- ing projection on the northern side, owing, perhaps, to the circumstance that no one since the time of Blackader was munificent enough to build a N. transept. Beneath the choir is the crypt, which is 125 feet in length by 62 in breadth. It is supported upon low arches, springing from sixty-five pillars ; and it is a very remarkable fact that the piers are of all manner of shapes, both round and angular, and the capitals of the columns vary from the simplest to the most intricate sculptural design. A dim light, admitted by forty small windows, reveals to the spectator the architectural beauties of the place ; and it has been asserted by competent authority that this crypt is unsurpassed in its own peculiar stylo by any other building of a similar nature elsewhere. In ancient times, until the superstructure was finished, the ordinary worship of the church was carried on in this crypt. In the episcopate of Blackader, Glasgow was, by a bull of Pope Alexander VI., erected into an archi- episcopal see, and the archbishop became possessed of increased powers, not only ecclesiastical, but civil, as King James IV., who was himgclf a canon of the cathedral, granted him many additional dignities and privileges. In 1525 Gavin Dunbar, tutor to King James V., was consecrated Archbishop of Glasgow, and during his tenure of office it was that the principles of the Reformation began to be openly adopted and en- forced in the W. of Scotland. Dunbar died in 1547, and in 1552 James Beaton, nephew of the cardinal of that name, succeeded to the see. This was the last prolate of the Romish Church who held sway at Glasgow, for by this time the Reformation had spread itself so extensively, and its promoters were acting so energeti- cally, that the archbishop saw that it was vain to struggle against events which he had not the power to control. He removed into the bishop's palace, which immediately adjoined the cathedral, all the valuables which the latter edifice contained ; and in 1560 passed over into France, carrying with him the archives of the church, and a considerable quantity of the gold and silver plate, and ornaments belonging to it. These he deposited partly in the Scotch college, and partly in the Char- treaux, in Paris, but the chartulary of the cathedral and other of the MSS. relating to it were saved during the French Revolution, by the Abbe Macpherson, and wore by him sent back to Scotland. None of the Protestant bishops did anything to enlarge or beautify the cathedral, which, although it suffered much during the progress of the Reformation, happily escaped destruc- tion at that eventful period, and still remains to us as a sumptuous monument of the pious munificence of bygone ages. In 1856 a committee was formed and subscriptions raised for embellishing it with memorial windows of stained glass. These have been executed at the Royal glass painting establishment at Munich from designs by various artists. There are forty-two of them in the choir, nave, transept, and crypt, and two more only are wanting to complete their projected number. They consist of subjects from the Old and New Testaments, and are the most beautiful and chronologically accurate examples of a series of stained-glass windows ever exe- cuted. On the S. of the cathedral stands the Barony Church, an unsightly building erected for the use of 1 congregation which had formerly worshipped in the crypt. Between this and the cathedral lies a portion of the ancient burial-ground, from which a narrow path leads to a bridge commonly known as the " Bridge of Sighs," the reason of this denomination being that it affords entrance to the Necropolis, or "city of the dead." It spans a stream called the Molcndinar Bum, where the water of the river Molendinar, having been stopped by a dam and collected into a small lake, is just underneath allowed to fall and form an artificial cascade down a steep ravine between 200 and 300 feet deep. This noble cemetery occupies a site formerly known as the Fir Park, which la believed to have been in olden times one of the sacred retreats of the Druids, and now exhibits every variety of sepulchral memorials, from the humblest grave and the simplest headstone to the most spacious vault or the ela- borately-carved column or monument. In many of these repose the remains of those whose names are enrolled in the historic records of our country ; " heroes of the pen otf sword," whose genius is even now their country's boast, and who, " being dead, still live." Among them is conspicuous a column erected to the memory of John Knox, surmounted by his statue. The whole of the Necropolis is divided into walks, which are ornamentally planted, and moat carefully kept, after the manner of the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, at Paris, and the view of the city and the country by which it is surrounded is at once curious and picturesque. On the N. of the Cathe- dral stands the blind asylum, and nearly opposite to it that for the deaf and dumb, and still further on the Barony poorhouse and New Town hospital. Not far from this, in a north-westerly direction, are the important chemical works of St. Rollox, the lofty brick chimney- stalk of which is, rising as it does to a height of 450 feet, a very conspicuous object ; and about half a mile further on is the Sight-hill Cemetery, which, like the Necropolis, is tastefully planted and laid out, and abounds with many graceful and magnificent sepul- chral monuments. This is the extreme point in this direction to which any buildings properly belonging to the city can be said to extend. Before quitting this portion of it, however, it will be useful to give some account of the Glasgow University or College, which, as has been already observed, stands on the eastern side of the High-street. Returning, then, from the cathedral, the passenger crosses the end of George-street, in which is situated Anderson's university, with the High School standing in the rear of it (both of which will be ad- verted to hereafter), and arrives at the principal educa- tional establishment of the city. The University of Glasgow was founded by Bishop William Turnbull in 1450, in virtue of a bull obtained by him from Pope Nicholas V., at the express desire of James II., and in 1451 a body of statutes was promulgated, and the university opened for the prosecution of theological and legal studies, and for the cultivation of the liberal arts, and a faculty was granted for the conferring of degrees. A deed constituting it a body corporate was drawn up, | and the corporation was to consist of a chancellor, a rector, a dean, a principal, the professors, and the students. At first the university was very poor, and having no buildings of its own, was allowed the use of a house near the cathedral ; but in 1459 James Lord Hamilton conveyed to the principal and regent professors of the faculty of arts a tenement in High-street, and_4 acres of land bordering on the Molendinar, on certain conditions declared in the deed of conveyance, one of which was that lie and his wife Euphemia should be commemorated as the founders of " Lord Hamilton's College." The present college stands on the site of these buildings, and subsequently received considerable additions. From the period of the Reformation till the year 1577, it maintained a severe struggle for its very existence, but in that year James VI. granted it a fresh charter of constitution and increased revenues, which together with gifts from private individuals, once more raised its status, and it was restored to a comparatively flourishing condition. At the restoration of Charles II.,