An Ionic temple is raised to the memory of Dr. Dick, near to which is an ambitious structure, hard to describe, to the memory of J. H. Alexander. Close beside it is the monument to Dugald Moore, surmounted by a lifelike bust. Between the chapel and these monuments is a lofty memorial in the Elizabethan style, erected to the memory of William McGavin, author of the periodical called 'The Protestant;' it is surmounted by a statue of more than life size, the work of Robert Forrest, the sculptor of the Knox figure, and was erected by the fellow-citizens of the Glasgow Protestant' merchant. In a secluded corner of the Necropolis is the Jews' burial place, having an architectural façade designed after the tomb of Absalom. 6 The Necropolis has lately been extended in an easterly direction, so as to embrace an extensive area, where catacombs have been already formed in the side of the steep rock; and when the trees and shrubs planted in this additional ground shall have attained goodly proportions, the Glasgow Necropolis may vie with any cemetery in Great Britain; at present its area is but limited, although, as regards its situation, it is probably unrivalled. The views from every part of it are most striking and comprehensive, and embrace four counties. From that portion near to the octagonal Norman chapel where the burial service is read, one of the finest prospects of the city is obtained. Standing at the base of Knox's monument another view is obtained, such as but few cities could boast. Immediately below us the ground falls precipitously in terraces of tombs, the carriage-ways and walks zigzagging down amid trees and shrubs towards the Italian gateway and the Bridge of Sighs. Far beneath is the deep ravine, with the Molendinar Burn flowing rapidly VIEW FROM THE NECROPOLIS. 103 between the steep banks, like as it did in those troublous Reformation days, when 'a' the idolatrous statues o' sants' were taken from the cathedral, and the bits o' stane idols were broken in pieces by Scripture-warrant and flung into the Molendinar Burn, and the old kirk stood as crouse as a cat when the flaes are kaimed aff her.' There is the old kirk herself on the opposite side of the ravine. From our higher elevation we gaze down upon her roofs, and on the flat grave-stones now shining white in the glare of the sun, and looking like so much linen left to bleach on the open green on which the cathedral stands. Conspicuous to the right are the Infirmary and the Blind Asylum, the St. Rollox chimney, towering 436 feet above Mr. Tennant's chemical works, and the high ground on which Sight Hill Cemetery is so admirably situated; then come dense masses of stone houses stretching from right to left-the church spires out-topping the low film of smoke-then the Botanic Gardens and Kelvin Grove, which is now a West-end Park, laid out by Paxton; and then, in the haze of the far distance, the hills of Renfrewshire, Dumbartonshire, and Argyleshire. Two miles to the south of us is Langside, where Murray scattered Mary's fortunes to the winds. There is Cathkin Hill, with its rock called 'the Queen's Seat,' from whence she sat and watched the ebb and flow of battle. A fir tree now supplants the thorn that once (so appropriately) marked this spotsuch a thorn in Mary's side. From here she rode sixty Scottish miles before she took rest. Above us, perched upon his lofty pillar, is the colossal figure of John Knox. There stands he (as the Regent Morton said of him) who never feared the face of man. 'It seems like the spirit of the Reformer come back to inveigh, with outstretched arm, against the cathedral, and, if possible, to complete the work which he left unfinished at his death."* The figure, however, is very mildly treated, as mildly as in Hood's sketch of the rustic painter depicting the raging lion' on the inn sign— the sculptor † has drawn him very, very mild, has trimmed his locks, and allowed his drapery to hang in perpendicular folds, instead of streaming out in that horizontal manner suggestive of the gusts of the passion and the restless activity of the excitable Reformer. 'The preaching of John Knox,' indeed, to judge from the pencil of Wilkie, as well as from the pages of history, must have been of the ultra-energetic and thump-thecushion style. When I look at that print of Knox preaching, I do not wonder at the excitement of the auditory; but what does excite my wonder is, that the baby carried by the woman (with those softly-rounded features that Wilkie stereotyped for Scotch, Spanish, Turkish and English women alike) who is literally 'sitting under' the preacher-that this woman's baby should be placidly slumbering under such a terrific cushion-thwacking and roaring; for John Knox (one had almost written Knocks), with his thumping and shouting, must surely have driven sleep far away from even an infant. But the mantle of Wilkie has not fallen upon the sculptor † of this monumental John Knox, who looks much too placid ever to have bullied anyone, much less a beautiful queen. It is true, as Mr. Chambers says, that he stands 'with outstretched arm,' but it demands weakened eyes or a lively fancy * Mr. R. Chambers' Pictures of Scotland. †The late Mr. Robert Forrest, a self-taught Lanarkshire sculptor, who settled in Edinburgh. The column, &c., was designed by Mr. Thomas Hamilton, of Edinburgh. The figure of Knox is twelve feet high. MONUMENT TO KNOX. 105 to imagine him 'inveighing' against the cathedral. His outstretched arm' is bent upward, so as to hold a book, and from any expression that we can read in his features or attitude, he might be studying The Dairyman's Daughter' or 'Bradshaw.' There he stands however, high in air, and looking down at that sombre but beautiful building, whose carved work would have been utterly broken down by the axes and hammers of his followers, had not the Glasgow craftsmen and deacons, with a conservative and truly Protestant zeal, of which their descendants may honestly be proud, rushed to the defence of their city's glory, and finally compromised matters by removing those obnoxious statues that were flung into the Molendinar Burn. 'Pull down the nests, and the craws 'll fly away,' Knox said, quoting the old adage that our first Defender of the Faith had used when he desired to obtain a similar end. But the nest was not to be so interfered with: beautified and restored by pious hands, it remains to this day the most perfect ecclesiastical structure of which Scotland can boast. Glasgow may well be proud of her cathedral; and, in all such good deeds as its restoration, we may heartily quote the civic motto, and say, 'Let Glasgow flourish.' CHAPTER X. DUMBARTON. Bishopton-View of Dumbarton from across the River - The THE HE twenty-two miles of Clyde scenery between Glasgow and Greenock offer but few points of interest; and these may be viewed rather better from the railway than from the river. The remarkable rock of Dumbarton, is the great lion on this route; and the view of it from the Greenock railway is certainly better and more picturesque than that which may be gained from the deck of the steamer. The line from Glasgow to Greenock is carried at a considerable elevation above the level of the river, and after passing Bishoptonwhere, as its name implies, was the country residence of the Primate of Glasgow-comes directly upon the Clyde, and then skirts the river all the way to Greenock. Bishopton is situated on a long ridge of whinstone rock, through which the line of railway had to be blasted for a distance of 2,300 yards, at a great expense, the gunpowder alone costing twelve thousand pounds. This whinstone ridge passes under the Clyde, and then emerges abruptly in the rock of Dumbarton, which is 560 feet high, and a mile in circumference; and all the more remarkable from its standing in a level plain. |