heard it stated that the original Pointhouse was erected on the Govan, or south side of the river, which afterwards changed its course and left the Pointhouse on the north, or Barony side, which some years ago led to a dispute between the two parishes who should lift the rates. However, in reference to this, I have also heard it stated that not the Clyde, but the Kelvin effected this change; that the Pointhouse being originally built on the Partick side of Kelvin, this river changed its course to the west side of the Pointhouse, cutting it off both from Govan Parish and Partick. If this last be the true change, it shows that the ferry and ferryhouse were originally for the convenience of Partick people, as it should be, rather than at the greatest possible disadvantage as at present.

A regular ford for horse through the Kelvin to the ferry existed within these fifty years opposite where Messrs. Tod & M'Gregor's works now stand, which the late George Oswald of Scotstown kept open while he lived by riding through it several times in the year.

From the different references to the lands of Perthic in early times, it seems that these lands extended from Blawart Hill, above Scotstown, to Gilmour Hill, the greater part of which was gifted to the Church; and after the Reformation a great portion of it was given to the College of Glasgow, which still retains the superiority.

In 1451 James II. granted to his beloved and familiar squire Walter Stewart of Arthurlie, a liferent tack of the lands of Perthwick, within the Barony of Renfrew; and up to the beginning of this century, when the new bridge and road leading from Clayslaps to Partick, forming a part of the Dumbarton Road, were made, there were extensive bleaching, dyeing, and printworks, and a number of houses at the foot of Gilmour Hill, opposite the Westend Park, called Gilmour Holm, which was also termed Partick, so that the name applied to a large tract of land.

There was certainly a common impression amongst its old inhabitants that Partick was at one time a place of considerable note, apart from its local position. I have endeavoured to find out upon what this impression is based, and the only thing I can find beyond what I have already stated-its natural beauty and facility for waterpower-is in connection with the Church, and the Bishop of Glasgow having a residence there.

"The Bishops of Glasgow," says the author of Parochiales Scotia, "had a residence in Partick before 1277. In 1362 the compromise of a dispute between the Lord Bishop and his chapter took place at

the Manor house of Perthic." It is stated that this compromise was brought about by a meeting of the following-the Bishops of Dunkeld, Brechin, Orkney, and Galloway, and the Abbot of the Holy Cross, Edinburgh. Now if these great men met at the house in Partick, which is indicated by the document being dated from there, then the house must have been one of considerable pretensions; and in the Registrum we read of Helias de Perthic, Petrus de Perthic, Rector of the Church of Rutherglen, Johannes de Perthic, Dominus Petrus de Perthic, Jocelinus de Perthic, and others, a string of notables and persons of such dignity that would necessarily require a good many dependants, whose accommodation would form a little village alone. That the Bishops continued to reside in Partick till the time of the Reformation, in 1560, is proven by the fact that Bishop Bethune, after collecting many of the sacred relics belonging to the Cathedral, secreted them in his Meal Mill in Partick, till an opportunity was afforded him to remove them with himself into France. It is said that he fled from his Manorium in Partick. In connection with these historical references we have the names of certain localities still existing, as Bishop's Mill, Bishop's Byres (now Victoria Street), Bishop's Meadow and Orchard (now forming the docks and meadow lands west of these), and the Bishop's Road (now forming Mill Road and Queen Street Partick); but strange to say, we have no idea where this palace or manor house stood. All I can find is a statement in Parochiales Scotia "that it is supposed to have stood on the bank which overlooks the junction of the Kelvin and the Clyde." This supposition, however, as I will presently show, may be an error. Till within these last twenty-five years an old ruin stood on the bank of the Kelvin near to where the Kelvin formerly joined the Clyde, now forming part of Anderston Street and a dyehouse. This ruin was called "The Bishop's Castle," not only by the inhabitants of Partick, but by Chambers in his Caledonia, and by Clelland in his History of Glasgow. Chambers's note runs "That Archbishop Spottiswood, who greatly repaired our Cathedral and the archiepiscopal palace, also built, in 1611, a castle at Partick to serve as a country seat for the archbishops, as one of his castles was destroyed at the Reformation." This statement, as we will see, lacks authority. Mr. Laurence Hill, in his interesting pamphlet Hutchesoniana, has satisfactorily shown that this ruin called "The Bishop's Castle," was erected by George Hutcheson as a country residence ; and to put the matter beyond doubt, Mr. Hill, in the above-named

pamphlet, publishes a copy of the actual contract and specification for the building, headed in the quaint language of the time, "Contract betwixt me and ye masoun in Kilwynning anent the biging of the house in Partick," 1611. Mr. James Smith of Jordanhill compared the said contract with the ruin, and had no hesitation in identifying it as the ruin of George Hutcheson's mansion.

The question now occurs why the private residence of George Hutcheson got the designation of the Bishop's Castle, as so distinctly affirmed by Chambers. It has been conjectured that probably the house was let out after the death of George Hutcheson, and that one of the Episcopal bishops, probably Burnet or Spottiswood, had it as his residence, and hence the name. That the house was let out after the death of George Hutcheson is made all but certain by the following item of account, in 1663, against Mrs. T. Hutcheson :

"Item, in Partick fyve glass windoes in George Mure's house and wyrees in the forsyd, and the glass windoes to the house in Partick are fourtifyve foots and ane half foot wide." The tenant here is simply termed George Mure. The house would then be fifty-two years old. I very much doubt any Bishop of Glasgow living in it after this date. Spottiswood was previous to this date, but Burnet may have rented it so far as dates are concerned, but I can find no positive notice of it. The land on which this house was built was part of what is termed Bishop's Meadows, and what I am inclined to think is that George Hutcheson built his house either on or near the site of the old Manor, which, if it existed in 1362, must have been pretty venerable at the time of the Reformation, in 1560, and was possibly demolished by the populace, or left to go to ruin. From the contract it seems that either a building had existed on the site previous to this contract with the mason from Kilwinning, or that George Hutcheson had begun to build and had resolved to enlarge it, so that the contract embraces the taking down what had been built and laying a new foundation or grundstane, "for sa meikle as the said George having ane house foundit in Partick, not in ye baronie of Glasgw, and ane part of ye wallis and grund yr of alreddie layid qlk being intendit to have bene maid ane eard hall, and now of intentioun to alter ye same in forme and maner following, to wit, sal caus tak doun the stanewark alreddie biggit, and to cast the grund of the house qlk the grund be fund sufficint grou to lay the grundstane." This contract is merely for the workmanship, the stone and other materials being supplied by George Hutcheson

himself; so that George Hutcheson may have used up, in part, old materials which may have formed the ruins of the Bishop's Castle. Were it not from some such cause, it is difficult to account for the short time, comparatively speaking, that this house of George Hutcheson existed in good repair. According to the contract, the foundation-stone was laid on the 1st of April, 1611, and the house was unroofed and in ruins in 1783; and from inquiries I have made of old people long since dead, it was last inhabited about 1770, and then by common work-people, who let out the hall or upper room for dancing and other amusements, and none of my informants had ever remembered hearing of gentry living in it. Now, that a house built of such pretensions, and with the shrewd caution of George Hutcheson, should only be habitable for the class for which it was built for little above 120 years, as buildings were then made, is unaccountable, except on the supposition of old materials being partly used in its construction; and that it was in the stonework the destruction took place is also probable from the circumstance that in 1783, when it was unroofed, in order to build the old Merkland Farmhouse, which stood close to the present weaving factory, from the materials of this ruin, the woodwork being oak, was so good that the builder retained it and used new wood of a different sort for the farmhouse. This building from these old stones was only habitable for sixty years so much for old materials. There is a house in Partick built with new materials in 1619, only nine years after George Hutcheson's, yet inhabited.

That the ruins of George Hutcheson's mansion was identified as the Bishop's castle, can easily be accounted for. The researches of the archeologist and antiquary are but recent studies. When Chambers found, from old charters, that the bishops had a manor in Partick, inquiry was naturally made as to the site, and the ruins of George Hutcheson's house on grounds known as the Bishop's Meadows being found, it was at once accepted as the bona fide article. I may mention that the idea of it being the Bishop's Castle is not a tradition of Partick. I have inquired at many old people, and they all stated that they did not know it to be so in their youth, but that their information was imported by some one who had seen it stated in books. I may remark, while on buildings, that Partick contains none either of great note or antiquity; however, it has an antiquity and notoriety in its manufactures, especially its mills. In a recital of the Church lands annexed to the Crown, and afterwards feued by Walter Com

mandator, of Blantyre, of the Bishopric Lands in 1587. There is named prominently-Wester and Easter-side of Partick, Miln of Partick, and Miln Lands, Partick Yard, Waucking Mill of Partick (now Scotstown Mill), Brewland of Partick Mill, called Archy Lyon's Mill, Meadows of Partick, New and Old Parks of Partick Mill, I called Wheat Mill.

Where all these mills were, and the other localities named, I cannot tell, but they indicate a considerable trade (and only a portion of the trade of the town), for there were other businesses carried on, such as tanning, brewing, bleaching, dyeing, printing, besides other mills not connected with Church lands. I extract the following from Clelland's History of Glasgow:-" Before the Reformation the Bakers of Glasgow were in use to grind at the Town Mills in Partick, and also at a small mill which then belonged to the Archbishop, and subsequently to the Crown. The mill belonging to the Church was situated a little to the east of the Town's Mill, and had nearly gone into decay; these mills being of small dimensions were barely sufficient to supply the inhabitants, and by no means capable of producing an extra supply on any emergency."

In the year 1578 the forces of the Regent Murray, who successfully opposed those of Mary Queen of Scots at the battle of Langside, were quartered at Glasgow and neighbourhood. On this occasion the bakers were called upon for an extraordinary supply of bread for the troops, which they accomplished by uncommon exertion in bruising and bolting grain, not only in the mills, but also in their own houses, so much to the satisfaction of the Regent that he gave them a grant of the Archbishop's mill, which had now become the property of the Crown, and a piece of land adjoining it, which was annexed to the Royalty of Glasgow in the first session of the first Parliament of Charles II. In this annexation there are the words "Dissolving the Lands of the Wheat Mill on Kelvin, belonging to the Town and the Baxters from the shire of Clydesdale, and annexing them to the City of Glasgow." If the Wheat Mill named here be the same as that called the Wheat Mill given in feu to Walter Commandator, of Blantyre, did the City and Baxters gain it by purchase, or how?

This mill, granted to the bakers, termed the Bishop's Mill, did not seem to be of great value to the town as it then stood, for in 1660, on 4th February, the following minute occurs in Burgh Records: "The said day the Deane of Gild maid report that he and the Deacon Conveiner, conforme to the Counsalls ordours, had maid search and