building artificial banks, as though the river were one long lock upon a canal. It is curious to read of the crushing difficulties, founded on the pettiest subjects, that for a century and a half beset the improvements of the Clyde, and wellnigh drove commerce out of the city of St. Mungo. At one time, the formation of the harbour and docks was prevented, lest the price of provisions should be raised at Dumbarton; and, at another time, for fear that the people of Tron should be compelled to pay more for their butter and eggs! These are facts that read like fiction. All the triumphs over these great obstacles of such insurmountable littleness, and all the satisfactory results of those sturdy struggles of human science and skill to reduce the river to a fit state for its work, are centred in the Broomielaw; and are witnessed to by that human hive of busy industry, where masts and rigging and funnels seem tangled into a wild forest, in which the boats and gay river steamers flit in and out like the painted birds and butterflies. CHAPTER V. GLASGOW JOTTINGS. A City turned to Stone-A Fiery Medusa-Bare Legs and AS S we leave the bustling Broomielaw, and saunter back through the crowded streets, there is one peculiarity in the buildings that cannot fail to claim the visitor's notice. It is the entire absence of brick. The visitor may wander for hours, from one stately street to another, without setting eyes upon a brick house. He sees nothing but edifices of stone. (Why is it, by the way, that a house, if built of brick, is simply a house;' but if built or rather constructed,' of stone, is then exalted into an edifice'? The expression savours somewhat of the penny-a-liner's "Froust'*) The Glasgow houses, then, are all of stone, a freestone, white and durable; and the wise man who carried about a brick as a specimen of his habitation, would here find his occupation gone. Glasgow looks like a vast stone-quarry, to which some enchanter's 6 * See a most amusing little book published under this title, by a son of the late Judge Bolland. building artificial banks, as though the river were one long lock upon a canal. It is curious to read of the crushing difficulties, founded on the pettiest subjects, that for a century and a half beset the improvements of the Clyde, and wellnigh drove commerce out of the city of St. Mungo. At one time, the formation of the harbour and docks was prevented, lest the price of provisions should be raised at Dumbarton; and, at another time, for fear that the people of Tron should be compelled to pay more for their butter and eggs! These are facts that read like fiction. All the triumphs over these great obstacles of such insurmountable littleness, and all the satisfactory results of those sturdy struggles of human science and skill to reduce the river to a fit state for its work, are centred in the Broomielaw; and are witnessed to by that human hive of busy industry, where masts and rigging and funnels seem tangled into a wild forest, in which the boats and gay river steamers flit in and out like the painted birds and butterflies. BARE LEGS AND NOISELESS STEPS. 45 back in chenille nets, after the prevailing fashion, welldressed, and apparently well-to-do, and yet (save the nets) with nothing but Nature's covering upon their heads, and undoubtedly in a state of nature as regards their legs and feet. Well, they are handsome legs, and worthy to be shown and admired, and, as the darkstriped petticoat falls only midway down the calf, we are enabled to judge of their good proportions. They stride along the pavement in mysterious silence; no echoing footfalls arise from their naked feet, and, as the English traveller recalls the clattering brogues and brodequins of foreign cities, or, haply, the Lancashire clogs of some of his own provincial towns, he blesses this absence of noise, and thinks that these Scottish lassies have acquired an added charm by that idea of quietude and repose that is suggested by their method of moving about with noiseless steps. So, with silent feet, though not with silent tongues, they went to and fro, the summer sun smiting their uncovered heads, and they, and the children about them, thinking as much of a coup de soleil as does a Christ's Hospital boy. And so long as these lassies are not bare-faced, we cannot reasonably object to their being either bare-legged, or bare-headed. Wending our way back to George Square, we turn out of Buchanan Street, with its attractive shops, under one of the triumphal arches that flank the Royal Bank. Here we are among palatial-looking buildings that well grace those noble avenues of stone that pass by the name of Queen Street and Ingram Street. The latter street, with the Exchange and the Wellington statue to terminate its western vista, is one of the handsomest streets of which any city can boast, and is peculiarly rich in striking edifices, among which, that of the Union Bank of Scotland, modelled after the Roman Temple of Jupiter Stator, at once attracts the eye. George Street is another fine street, and would be still finer if the church, that now divides it into two, was removed to its extremest point. The West End of Glasgow is most attractive and picturesque, and the scenery of the West End Park renders it an unusually effective adjunct to the handsome-looking houses in the vicinity. The Crescents stand on a hill above the Kelvin Water, and the sides of the hill are tastefully laid out as a park, and are planted with trees and shrubs. The banks of the Kelvin are also fringed with trees, and Kelvin Grove House, situated amid foliage, on the very edge of the stream, is prettily mirrored in the Kelvin Water. In two conspicuous places are placed trophy guns and mortars from the Crimea. There are also some public buildings that here attract attention. The Queen's Rooms, a Frenchified-looking building, with elaborate bas-reliefs on the entablature; Clairmont Church and Clairmont Stair, which is a flight of steps handsomely balustraded, and ornamental as well as useful. At the West End is also Dr. Caird's church-Park Church-whose tall tower and crowded pinnacles make it a noticeable feature in the view, more especially as a campanile near to it assists in drawing attention to the building. I did not see the interior of this church; but its exterior is very satisfactory, and affords one among numerous instances of the growing taste for ecclesiastical architecture among those who, a century ago, affected to despise it. The gabled clerestory windows have a very good effect, and are much superior to the gabled windows in Clairmont Church, where they are in the aisles. Outwardly, indeed, Park Church appears to be a thoroughly ecclesiastical |