Glasgow and its clubs Author:John Strang Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: GLASGOW FROM 1750 TO 1780-AND MY LORD ROSS'S CLUB. During the thirty years which immediately followed the establishment of the Anderston and Hodge Podge Club... more »s, great changes had been gradually taking place in all things connected with Glasgow. Commerce and manufactures had given it a stimulating and onward progress; while science and the arts had added their mighty aid in effecting improvement. As proofs of the latter influence, it may be mentioned that in 1759 the first Act for deepening the river Clyde was obtained; and that in 1764 James Watt made his first model of a steam- engine, to the benefits derived from which Glasgow andits harbour owe everything. Necessity and utilitarianism combined also to sweep away many of the old land-marks; and among these we find that—first in 1755, and again in 1788—the remains of the once celebrated Castle, or Episcopal Palace, (and which is first alluded to in 1300, when Edward the First had possession of nearly the whole lowlands of Scotland,) began to be barbarously used, like the Amphitheatre of Vespasian at Rome, as a common quarry; its final demolition having been postponed till the year 1789, when its whole ruins were removed to make room for the open space in front of the Royal Infirmary. Of the fourteen Lord Provosts who, from 1750 to 1780, had been elevated to the high office of presiding over the Council and community of Glasgow, there are perhaps none, with the exception of Provosts Cochrane and Donald, whoso civic fame has come down to the present hour.f They were all, no doubt, most respectablemen in their day and generation, and maintained the dignity of the office not only in the chair of the Council chamber, but also on the right hand seat of honour at any civic feast—whether it might have been a dinner at three, or a supp...« less