scapes that were done by Robert Paul, a little before his death, have that simplicity which promises superior excellence. The View of the West Street, called the Tronegate of Glasgow, is the most capital, as it is the last of his works, and was finished after his death by William Buchanan." Both were pupils of the Academy.. After the lapse of more than a century, it is only the smallest tribute of gratitude to revive the names of two artists who have thus been helpful to antiquarian researches.

The Music Bells in the Steeple have long been a source of pride to the Glasgow people, and they would not now part with them any more than they would deny the place of their birth. The tinkling of their silvery tones high aloft to "Tweedside" and the "Lass o' Patie's Mill," &c., we may venture to say, have inspired many a one with a love for their national airs and poetical fame; while on the tranquil Sunday morning the "Easter Hymn," with its Hallelujahs“Christ is risen from the dead,

High ascended is our Head," &c.,

may have had on others a religious effect. How it came to pass that magistrates usually engrossed with pressing affairs had become music struck, and resolved on erecting a "chime of bells," is something not a little remarkable. Had they heard of the time immemorial legend

and were determined to maintain the celebrity of the city? or had the mystic spell of the "Menstrales" come over them, who ninety years before had been clothed in coats of blue, and paid by the corporation? From whatever circumstance the idea had originated, it appears that about 1666 a "chyme of bells" was not only concluded on, but actually procured; certainly evincing most excellent public spirit in the projectors, whom posterity should delight to honour. It, however, happened that various alterations and improvements had been required to be made upon these bells at different periods, to as far down as 1739, when, with a perseverance which cannot but be admired in the attainment of such an end, the public approbation was then secured at a cost to the city of altogether £611 1s. 9d. Though said even yet not to be sufficiently perfect in the musical scale, the chime must be allowed as of a respectable order, and possessing such variety of tones as to render the harmony always cheering and agreeable. With much pleasure I refer the members

C

of the Society to an able Note on this subject, by one of our VicePresidents, Dr. Strang, printed in Mr. Pagan's "Sketch of the History of Glasgow."

Among other rooms and halls for transacting the business of the Burgh, and the administration of justice, was also the "Council House" (mentioned by M'Ure), adorned with its royal portraits or 66 effigies." It can scarcely be passed over, the loyalty, judgment, and discrimination of the Magistrates, which had prompted to the forming of such a collection of portraits-not mere daubs to hide the nakedness of walls; but creditable specimens of art. It appears to have been agreed upon, in 1735, that a new Council Hall and Assembly Rooms should be erected, and for this purpose the Magistrates and Council purchased, from Mr. John Graham of Dougalston, certain old houses and vacant ground near the Cross. The new building, as a Council or Town Hall, adjoining the Prison, on the west, was finished in 1740. It has been repeatedly stated as erected in 1636, but which is thought incorrect. Next arose the Tontine Buildings, which were erected in 1781, from plans furnished by Mr. William Hamilton, who, it is said, "displayed great skill in throwing the Arcade of the Town Hall into an extensive piazza, retaining the upper part of the cross walls of the superior structure." The keystones of the arches of the piazza, representing what are called the "Tontine faces," are reported as the carvings of a renowned Glasgow mason, Mungo Naismith. These faces though not now attracting much notice, were differently beheld long ago, and generally pointed out to strangers as one of the "lions" of the city. Juveniles rejoiced in being able to throw their physiognomies into all the grotesque stone contortions exhibited; and with seniors, when any one put on an extraordinary cast of countenance, the common expression was, that he wore a "Tontine face." In this new embellished Town Hall were to be seen the portraits above-mentioned, and probably also the "fine large oval table where the Magistrates and Council, and their Clerk sits," famous for a bloody tragedy over its oaken materials in 1694. Denholm, in 1804, describing this Hall, says, "It is a handsome and large room; in length it measures 52 feet, in breadth 27. Here are full length portraits of all our monarchs since James I. of England, and an excellent one by Ramsay (likely the son of the poet) of Archibald Duke of Argyll, in his robes as Lord Justice-General. It is impossible," says he, "to view this picture without being struck with its beauty. The figure almost starts from the canvas, from the able

distribution and management of the light and shade, and in viewing the face you can hardly persuade yourself but you see real life." Other eulogiums on it by the same artist are omitted. It is to be regretted that for many years past this hall has been quite deserted— perhaps the inconvenient entrance from the recent building at the Cross on the site of the prison, was one of the reasons. The fine ornamental work in oak and stucco adorning its interior, justly marks it out as well worth the inspection of the curious, along with the Faculty Hall in the University, both of which as showing the taste in, and progress of decorative art at the respective periods.

Further enlargement and extension were made to the Prison buildings, by the purchase from Messrs. John & James M'Ilquham, about 1792, of a tenement fronting the High Street, adjoining the prison, for a new Justiciary Hall. This hall is very faithfully described by Denholm, as follows:-" Within a niche on the north of this apartment is the Royal arms, and behind the figure of Justice, holding in the left hand a balance, and in the right a sword: Immediately below this is the bench for the Judges, covered with scarlet; below, and railed from the body of the room, is the inside of the bar for the lawyers and clerks. On the right of the bench sits the jury, and in the front beyond the clerks' table, and without the bar, is a row of seats rising gradually upwards, in the first of which is placed the panel, and in the others the auditors. Here are also two handsome galleries with iron rails entering by a turnpike stair from the lowest or first flat, and on the east of the room is a very large circular Venetian window which looks into the High Street," &c. This building still exists, though in a considerably altered form; one or two of the upper flats of which I think were formerly used as a kind of Correction House or Penitentiary for females, and I have heard that it also contained a dwelling house for the jailor, and a room for Records. A seemingly ancient stone or tablet, representing the Royal arms of Scotland, is built high in the back part of the wall of the tenement, to which the attention of the members of the Society may be directed for further elucidation.

At the period of which we are speaking, the Circuit Judges visited Glasgow twice a-year, once every six months. Their advent was hailed with all becoming marks of respect, by the ringing of the public bells, and official and military processions, preceded by a band of instrumental music. There was no retinue of carriages as nowall walked on foot, and the Judges taking up their temporary resi

dence, commonly either in the Black Bull or Star Inn, the two most noted hotels of the day. If the trials necessitated their stay on a Sunday, the same processions formed and accompanied them in the forenoon to divine service in St. Andrew's Church. On all these occasions the stir among the people was very great, each one anxious to realise what a Lord was in appearance, with life or death in his hand, and who had come upon the errand of dispensing justice. During the trials, groups of onlookers in High Street, in view of the Justiciary Court Hall, were busy discussing questions of the cases going on within, of which they could know almost nothing, and speculating on the fate of this one and of that. It was generally reckoned a happy termination to a justiciary circuit, if no criminals were left to suffer the highest punishment of the law.

To narrate all the remarkable events partaking of a judicial, social, and political character, associated with such a building as the Old Prison of Glasgow, which stood from the second year of the reign of Charles I. to within a year of the battle of Waterloo, would occupy a volume, and lies more within the province of the historian, than the delineator of a few brief notices, pertaining (if we may so speak) to the anatomy of a stone and lime structure. It may simply be said that its career is rich in incidents, to illustrate which in detail might reward the labours of some eloquent pen. One circumstance only may be related of an affecting nature. The intrepid Mr. Donald Cargill, sometime minister of the Barony Church of Glasgow, had the hardihood to excommunicate, in a public sermon at Torwood, near Stirling, Charles II., and all the bloody persecutors of the Covenant, for which a reward of 6000 marks (£333 6s. 8d. stg.) was set upon his head. He was long hunted up and down the country, and at last taken at Covingtoun Mill (in the upper ward of Lanarkshire), from which, by forced marches, with his legs tied below the horse's belly, he was brought to Lanark, and from thence to Glasgow Tolbooth, on his way to Edinburgh. When they came near the City of Glasgow, says his biographer (in a now scarce tract), "they turned him upon the horse and led him backward, which made many to weep to see their old minister in that posture." He was too good a prize for some of the bigots of that intolerant age to be allowed to escape with his life; and was, with four others, hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh, on 27th July, 1681, and had their heads put upon the Ports. That Glasgow was also frequently the field of such cruel martyrdoms, tablets yet existing bear witness; and at no very

distant time back, it is affirmed, were to be seen on the Tolbooth the spikes on which had been placed the heads of the sufferers.

Part of the duties of the Magistrates were, as Defoe mentions, "to try such causes as came within their cognizance;" and, in the ancient Burgh Records, we have numerous interesting examples of what were the crimes disturbing public order, and the species of punishment awarded by the civil power. In common with the penalty of imprisonment in the Tolbooth for assaults on the person, as "strykin on the mouth with the faulded neive;" "hitting on the chaftis ;" "dinging doun to the erd;" "dowpin;" using "whingers" (swords or dirks) to the effusion of blood, &c., there were "scurgeing (or whipping) of ane woman throw the toun," of " ane theif," of "ane vagabund," &c. Banishment from the "burght and baronie, and gif ewir thai be fund thairinto again, to be reputt as wordy of deid" (death), for trespassing "amangis wither menis stuff, pulland, steilland, or ruggand of ye samyn"-Branks and Jougs for "flyters" and malicious people-Dowkin (ducking) such as of Jonet Fawside"Stocks, and "gif James Speir latts the beists that he poyndis away, but satisfaction of party is content to lie in them xxiv. houris "Burning on the Cheek or Branding as of "pure (poor) common beggaris," unless that "thai depart furth of this toun within xxiiij. houris"-Goifis for "fische wyfis" who are to "abstene from regrating (forestalling) of ye mercatt, under the pane of putting on "Amends and Repentance to the Kirk, for breaking of "aithis (oaths) and to fulfill sic injunctiones as ye Kirk will devyss for ye samyn"Amends in public—“ John Benyng is ordainit to cum to ye mercatt croce on Munonday nixt, and thair upon his kneis ask God and Marione Scott's forgiveness thairfor."-Homage and Repentance "in the Hie Kirk of Glasgow for ye said slauchter, withe sic circumstances and cerymoneis as sall be ordainit and devysit," &c.-there were, besides, Fines imposed, of greater and smaller amounts, and Crying down of the freedom of Burgesses, "be ane officiar upone ane mercatt daye on ye cors for trublance of the toun," &c. These illustrations are not, however, quoted as by any means giving a complete view of the Magistrate's labour in this branch of his office in the Tolbooth.

The Scourging or whipping alluded to must have been painful and humiliating in the extreme. The delinquent was stripped to the bare back, attached to a cart tail, and attended by the town officersthe hangman presiding in his uniform. So many lashes were given