Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/170

Rh PAISLEY. 158 PAISLEY. Williamsburgh. The principal public buildings are the county hall, situated near the centre of the town, on the western bank of the Cart, between the Old and Sneddon bridges. It was built in 1813 at the cost of near 30,000, assessed on the county, and faces the old market-place, where stood the original court-house, the steeple of which is still standing. Its general form is quadrangular, and its style of architecture castellated, with projecting hexagonal turrets on its front, present- ing an unplcasing appearance externally, though 10,000 has recently been expended in enlarging and improving the pile. It comprises a court-house, council-chamber, assembly- hall, and different public offices on one side, and the common gaol, bridewell, prison chapel, and domestic offices on the other. Near the county hall, and in the same stylo of architecture, is the railway station. The coffee and reading rooms, also adjoining the market-place, have Ionic pilasters in front, and in the entrance-hall the bust of Professor Wilson, by Fillan. In a different part of the town, near the High Church, is the Neilson Institution, built in the form of a Greek cross and surmounted by a dome, visible from nearly all parts of the town. The house where Pro- fessor Wilson, the eminent moral philosopher, was born, is in High-street, and that of the poet Tannahill in Castle-street, but the house of Alexander Wilson, in tho suburb of Seedhill, has recently been demolished. There are an Athenaeum, instituted in 1847, a lite- rary association in 1850, a mechanics' institute, with library and baths, founded in 1847, a public library, established in 1802, and containing near 11,000 volumes, a young men's Christian association, the Renfrewshire Agricultural Society, Merchants' Society, instituted in 1725, two savings-banks, branch, offices of the Bank of Scotland, the British Linen Company's Bank, the Union Bank, the Western Bank, and the City of Glasgow Bank, also the office of the British Guarantee Associa- tion, fifty insurance agencies, and nine trades' societies, besides numerous religious and charitable associations. The number of houses, according to the census of 1861, within the borough was 2,592, inhabited by 10,351 separate families, comprising 47,406 individuals. The prosperity of the town has been greatly influenced, at various periods, by the success or decline of its staple manufactures, which have, perhaps, been more varied in character, and subject to greater vicissitudes, than those of any other manufacturing town in the United Kingdom. In 1707 the principal articles made in the town were coarse linen and chequered linen cloths, to which succeeded chequered linen handkerchiefs and striped muslins, called bengals. Afterwards fabrics of a lighter texture were introduced, such as lawns plain, striped, and richly figured and sewing-thread. The former of these manufactures had increased at the end of the last century to the value of 165,000 yearly, and tho latter to about 60,000 ; but the former is now extinct, and the latter has been exchanged for cotton- thread, which, before the cotton famine, employed 10 factories and 2,000 persons, the thread made being valued at 250,000 yearly. About the middle of the 18th century the manufacture of silk gauze was also introduced, and prosecuted with such vigour that in a short time it surpassed Spitalfields in the richness and variety of its silk goods, which were estimated at the value of 350, 000 yearly, and were largely exported to Paris and other continental cities. Towards the close of the last century the silk manufacture partially declined, but revived again in 1819, and is still verjr considerable, supplying nearly all the silk gauzes used in England not imported from France. Muslins were until recently extensively manufactured here, but the trade has been transferred to Glasgow, and the manufactures of crape dresses and damask and embroidered shawls, in imitation of those brought from China, introduced in its stead. The staple manufactures are now shawls of silk, cotton, silk and cotton mixed, and Cashmere shawls of fine wool, im- ported expressly from Germany and Australia, also chenille and Canton crape shawls, handkerchiefs, woollen plaids, BcnnH, tartan cloths, embroidered carpets, and similar kinds of the finest woollen fabrics. There cro besides a silk-throwing mill, several cotton mills, exten- sive dye-works, bleachfields, and printing mills, also iron and brass foundries, machine works, a yard at which iron river-steamers are built, timber yards, flour- mills, two large soap-works, a tannery, several breweries and distilleries. Handloom weaving, formerly so exten- sively practised, has recently been almost superseded by the power-loom, which change has thrown great numbers of weavers out of employ, insomuch that in 1840 one- third of the entire population are said to have been dependent on public charity ; but these changes and depressions of trade rather indicate the variations of fashion than any permanent declension of tho manufac- tures of Paisley. The town is governed by a provost and 15 councillors, of whom 4 are bailies. It returns one member to the imperial parliament, and had in 1855 a constituency of 1,186. It is well paved, lighted by gas, and has an abundant supply of pure water from the Stanley-braes water-works, which cost 60,000, and are under the management of the town council. The ancient boundaries of the original burgh were far more limited than the present parliamentary and municipal boun- daries, which include 6 square miles, comprising the 3 town pars, called High church, Middle church, and Low church, or St. George's, besides a large agricul- tural district forming the par. of Abbey Paisley [which see]. These pars., together with 8 others in the same county, constitute the presb. of Paisley, in the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. There are likewise a Free Church presb. of Paisley, with 15 congregations, an United Presbyterian presb. of Paisley and Greenock, with 28 congregations, and a Reformed Presbyterian presb. of Paisley, with 8 congregations. The Abbey par. of Paisley has continued since 1641 to be a collegiate charge in two divs., the stipend of the first minister being 376, and of the second 363, and the unappro- priated teinds 1,615 17*. lOd. The other pars., desig- nated the High, Middle, and Low (or St. George's) churches, are all single charges, the stipends of each being 230, payable out of the burgh funds, and all in the gift of the town council. There are likewise within the burgh limits a quoad sacra parochial charge attached to the Gaelic church, but without defined limits, a chapel-of-ease charge of the Martyrs' church, and mis- sionary charges of the North and South churches. Of all the ecclesiastical edifices in Paisley tho most inte- resting object is the Abbey church, which was re- paired in the last century, and is now used as the parish church of the Abbey parish. This was originally built in 1163, but was burnt by the English in 1307. On its ruins a larger structure was raised, but the greater part of the existing buildings was designed by Abbot Thomas Tarver, in the middle of the 15th cen- tury, and completed by his successor Abbot George Shaw, who died in 1499. The church, which when entire appears to'have been built in the form of a Latin cross, consisted of a nave, a tower and steeple, a choir, and a northern transept with the chapel popularly known as "the sounding aisle," or more correctly St. Mirren's. The entire edifice was 265 feet in length externally, and the nave 93 feet by 60 in breadth, the transept internally measured 92J feet by 35, with a choir 124 feet by 32. The steeple as well as the choir has disappeared, and the transept is only an interesting ruin. The main body, however, consisting of a nave and two aisles, separated from it by ten clustered columns, still remains, and forms the present parish church. Adjoining the nave on the S. side is a quad- rangle called the cloister court, from which is an entrance into the Sounding Aisle, 48 feet long by 24 broad, so- called from its powerful echo, and containing an ancient tomb surmounted by the recumbent figure of a woman, said to represent Marjory, daughter of Robert Bruce, wife of the founder of the abbey and mother of Robert II. The great extent of the ancient abbey once the richest, except Kelso, in all Scotland can bo traced by the remains of its foundations, anciently surrounded with an enclosure of above a mile in circuit, laid o'.'t trartly