[ [57] According to Smeaton’s report in 1755, there were in spring tides only 3 feet 8 inches water at Pointhouse Ford. Measures were taken to deepen the river, and operations with that object were begun in 1768. Salmon abounded in the Clyde, and was so common that servants and apprentices were accustomed to stipulate that they should not have salmon for dinner more than a certain number of days in the week.
[ [58] The “middens” in the street were sometimes complained of as a nuisance; and in 1776, the magistrate threatened a penalty of 5s. if middens of which complaint had been made were not removed within 48 hours.
[ [59] The Highland gentry and people regarded the Lowlanders as their natural enemies, fair subjects for plunder at all times as opportunities offered. The Lowlanders, on their part, regarded the Highlanders very much as the primitive settlers of North America regarded the Cherokee and Chocktaw Indians. Sometimes a band of uncouth half-clad Highlandmen would suddenly rush down upon the Lowlands, swoop up all the cattle within their reach, and drive them off into the mountains. Hence the Lowlanders and the Highlanders were always in a state of feud. Long after the ’45 a Highlandman would “thank God that he had not a drop of Lowland blood in his veins.”
[ [60] The only trade which Glasgow carried on with foreign countries previous to the Union, was in coal, grindstones, and fish,—Glasgow-cured herrings being in much repute abroad. After the Union partnerships were formed; vessels were built down the Clyde, and chartered for carrying on the trade with Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. The first honest vessel crossed the Atlantic from the Clyde in 1719; in 1735 the Virginia merchants in Glasgow had fifteen vessels engaged in the trade, and the town shortly after became the great mart for tobacco. Of the 90,000 hogsheads imported into the United Kingdom in 1772, Glasgow alone imported 49,000, or more than one-half. The American Revolution had the effect of completely ruining the tobacco trade of Glasgow, after which the merchants were compelled to turn to other fields of enterprise and industry. The capital which they had accumulated from tobacco enabled them to enter upon their new undertakings with spirit, and the steam-engine which had by that time been invented by their townsman James Watt, proved their best helper in advancing the prosperity of modern Glasgow. The rapidity of its progress may be inferred from the following facts. In 1735, though the Glasgow merchants owned half the entire tonnage of Scotland, it amounted to only 5600 tons. In that year the whole shipping of Scotland was only one-fortieth part of that of England: it is now about one-fifth. From 1752 to 1770 the total tonnage dues of the harbour of Glasgow amounted to only 147l., or equal to an average of about 8l. per annum. In 1780, the Clyde having been deepened in the interval, they reached 1515l.; and in 1854, they amounted to 86,580l. The increase has been quite as great in later years. In point of value of exports, Glasgow ranks fourth among the ports of the United Kingdom; and Greenock now takes precedence of Bristol.
[ [61] For many curious particulars of Old Glasgow and its society, see Dr. Strang’s ‘Glasgow and its Clubs.’
[ [62] a temporary wooden theatre was run up in 1752, but the religious prejudices of the population were violently excited by the circumstance, and the place was attacked by a mob and seriously damaged. The few persons who went there had to be protected from insults. In 1762, when some persons proposed to build a theatre, not a single individual who had ground within the burgh would grant them a site. Two years later the theatre was erected outside the precincts, and on the night on which it was opened it was wilfully set on fire by some persons instigated by the preaching of a neighbouring methodist, when it narrowly escaped destruction.
[ [63] When the Lowlanders want to drink a cheering cup, they go to the public-house, called the Change-house, and call for a chopin of twopenny, which is their yeasty beverage, made of malt, not quite so strong as the table-beer of England.... The Highlanders, on the contrary, despise the liquor, and regale themselves with whisky, or malt spirit, as strong as Geneva, which they swallow in great quantities, without any signs of inebriation: they are used to it from the cradle, and find it an excellent preservative against the winter cold, which must be extreme on these mountains.—Smollett, ‘Expedition of Humphry Clinker.’
[ [64] Letter to his father quoted in Muirhead’s ‘Life of Watt,’ p. 39.
[ [65] The following “letter of Guildry” embodied the local regulations which existed for the purpose of preventing “loss and skaith” to the burgesses and craftsmen of Glasgow by the intrusion of “strangers”:—“The Dean of Guild and his Council shall have full power to discharge, punish, and unlaw all persons, unfreemen, using the liberty of a freeman within the burgh, as they shall think fit, ay and while the said unfreemen be put off the town, and restrained, or else be made free with the town and their crafts; and sic like, to pursue, upon the judges competent, all persons dwelling within this burgh, and usurping the liberty thereof, obtain decrets against them, and cause the same to be put to speedy execution.”
[ [66] When we visited the room some years since, we found laid there the galvanic apparatus employed by Professor Thomson for perfecting the invention of his delicate process of signalling through the wires of the Atlantic Telegraph.