LAYING FOUNDATION STONE OF NEW BUILDINGS, GLASGOW UNIVERSITY.
October 8th, 1868.
Whatever else Scotland may have to boast of, she may point with pride to her parish schools and her universities. These have contributed largely to raise her among the nations, and laid the foundation of much of the enterprise, energy, and success in life, which have long characterized the Scots at home and abroad, and given them an honourable place in letters, science, and commerce.
Next to St. Andrews, and later only by a few years, Glasgow is the oldest of the Scottish Universities. It owes its origin to the Church in pre-Reformation times, being founded A.D. 1450, and was at first connected with the Cathedral. The buildings did not assume their collegiate form till after the Reformation. The front and gateway facing the High Street were not erected till 1660. Many still remember the dingy-looking old building, with its quaint barred windows, and projecting balconies over the gateway, surmounted by the Royal Scottish Arms, in the style and period of the last of the Stuarts. The visitor passed through the four open courts, on to the handsome modern building, the Hunterian Museum, containing the valuable collection of Dr. William Hunter, bequeathed by him in grateful remembrance of his connection with this University.
The venerable old College, having served its purpose through successive generations, for more than three centuries, the Senate of the University and the citizens of Glasgow determined to provide new buildings, upon a site and on a scale more suited to the requirements of the time. Subscriptions, in response to the appeal of the Senate, were obtained, to the amount of over £160,000; and this being supplemented by the money for the sale of the old building and the old site, with a parliamentary vote of £120,000, gave a total of £440,000.
The site chosen for the new buildings was the rising ground called Gilmore Hill, on the west of Kelvin Grove. The plans were prepared by Gilbert Scott, and all the world knows how the magnificent structure in due time rose, to be the pride and ornament of the western capital of Scotland—in wealth and population the second city in the United Kingdom.
It was an imposing spectacle when the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Princess of Wales, laid the foundation stone of the new building, on the 8th of October, 1868. A vast concourse of people witnessed the ceremony. An address was presented by the Lord Provost and Corporation, the Prince having previously received the freedom of the city.