IN 1870 there was published a bulky quarto volume, entitled "THE OLD COUNTRY HOUSES OF THE OLD GLASGOW GENTRY." A second and greatly enlarged edition was published in 1878. The volume was illustrated with one hundred plates containing views of the "Old Houses," accompanied by letterpress descriptions. These houses were not what we understand by "country houses" of the present day. They were the homes of those who owned them, and lived in them, and lived nowhere else. They might be from two to ten miles from the centre of the city, and to and from the city the old aristocratic citizen walked or drove daily. In those days there was no going to what we call "the coast" or "the country." Many of these old houses remain still, especially such as are beyond the range of the tramway car or the railway. Those nearer the city have nearly all given place to new streets, new terraces, or new suburbs.
The letterpress described the houses, and gave an account of those who successively possessed them - their origin, history, and connections. The old people, like the houses, are nearly gone too. Many became rich, and may now be recognized in county families. The army and the colonies have absorbed others. Some have their representatives in the honoured heads of honourable houses engaged in mercantile and professional life; others, alas! are only remembered by name. But they were a fine race; simple many of them were in their habits; comforts they all had; style and manners and culture were possessed by not a few; they were not perhaps so polished as at the present day, but they were sturdy and resolute, and many a mark they have left. These were the people who lived in the "Old Country Houses."
This work is not in one sense a continuation of the old book, yet in a measure it is. It is not a work descriptive of the modern mansions and the palatial residences of the men of Glasgow of a later date. It is an account of the men themselves - of those who were our neighbours and our friends, who lived in our midst, whom we all knew, and whom almost everybody knew. They, though now dead, have given life and light and learning to their city: their genius and skill, their enterprise and daring made it famous, and, combined with their wealth and their worth, have made Glasgow the second city in the empire.
It seemed only a duty to recall the memories of such men - to bring to our recollection their old familiar faces - to tell the story of their lives, what they did, and how they did it. This was the object we had in view in projecting the present work. Some may have doubts as to the wisdom of the selection of the names that have been chosen. The task was difficult, for the men were legion, and the time embraced was long - to include all who during that period had been of signal service to their city was impossible. As a selection was necessary, it was decided, first, that no living man should be included in the work; and, second, that the men chosen should be only those who had died during the last thirty years, a period which would practically give the local history from the beginning of the century; and, lastly, that, as in the case of the "Old Houses," the number of memoirs should be one hundred. On these lines it was thought everything would be included that was necessary to make the book representative of the various interests of our great city.
The Glasgow of to-day is a very different place from the Glasgow of a hundred years ago. Jones, in his old Directory of 1789, tells us what it was then. This little book of 84 small pages contains the names of all who, in that year, were engaged in business as employers "having offices, warehouses, shops, or places of call," and their whole number was under 1,600. The Directory of 1885 is a very different volume; it is large and bulky, containing nearly 1,500 pages, most of them in two or three columns; the list of business firms according to it now exceeds 40,000. The bulk of the business of those older days was in the hands of merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen, and shopkeepers, yet even then the occupations numbered 150 - while they now exceed 700. In the Directory of 1789 there is only one engineer, one coalmaster - not one ironmaster or ironfounder, nor one person or firm engaged in shipping; doubtless there were shipowners, but they are not described as such. In our last Directory under engineers we have the names of 699 firms, under coalmasters 250, under ironmasters 106, under ironfounders 228, under shipbuilders 71, while under shipowners, agents, brokers, and those engaged in shipping appliances, the number exceeds 1,000 firms. The very streets, terraces, lanes, and squares now exceed the number of employers in 1789. Hardly anything can show the growth of the city so well as these figures.
Such a prodigious increase in the course of a hundred years could not be accidental. The city, no doubt, was in possession of many natural advantages. The Clyde, iron and coal, water and steam, were mighty agents; but all these would have been as nothing but for the men who turned these advantages to account, and thus helped to make the place what it now is. An earlier race had begun this work, and did much to pave the way for their successors, just as men will come after us in whose hands we shall have to leave the legacy left to us, that they may pass it on to others.
A complete history of Glasgow is not a task that one man can accomplish - it must be the work of many. The antiquarian and the historian, the ecclesiastic and the man of business must all have a hand in the work. Mr. Barrett, the accomplished librarian of the Mitchell Library, tells us that in the department of that Library devoted solely to publications relating to Glasgow, there are already 2,500 separate works, so that what we now purpose giving is only another bit of this history; but it embraces that which is most recent and most interesting to us. It contains a record of representative men from among engineers, ironmasters, coalmasters, ironfounders, shipbuilders, shipowners, shipbrokers, bankers, merchants, clergymen, lawyers, medical men, principal and professors of the University, cotton spinners, calico printers, manufacturers; cotton, corn, yarn, sugar, timber, and tobacco merchants; drapery, linen, and chemical manufacturers; brewers, builders, accountants, stock brokers, marine and life insurance agents, philanthropists, architects, civil engineers, journalists, dyers, publishers, stationers, teachers, men of letters, portrait painters, sheriffs, and chamberlains.
We felt that such a book as this about Glasgow men ought to be written by Glasgow men - by gentlemen who from personal knowledge could tell us all that was necessary to be known, and by such have these papers been written. They are not memorial sketches written off-hand for a newspaper, but carefully prepared memoirs. When personal knowledge failed, access to documents which gave materials for authentic biography was readily and willingly furnished. Many friends, though fully engaged in mercantile and professional pursuits, proffered assistance, and willingly devoted time and labour that could be ill spared to enable us to carry to completion the object in view. When aid was asked it was never refused - always generously and ungrudgingly given. To these gentlemen, and to all who in so many ways gave us aid and assistance, we tender our most grateful thanks, for, but for their help, no such work on our local history could ever have been produced.
The portraits have all been engraved specially for this work. The pictures from which they have been taken have in almost every case been furnished by the representatives of the respective families. In the first instance it was intended to make use of photography, but photographs are apt to fade and sometimes vanish. The portraits have therefore been engraved by a new process, first on copper, then faced and finished on steel, and being printed from the steel plate are absolutely indelible. Some of the portraits have been copied at great disadvantage in consequence of the faded condition of the originals.
All the gentlemen - fifty-four in number - to whom we are so deeply indebted for the biographical notices, have lived to see the completion of their labour. One, indeed, the late William Graham, formerly M.P. for Glasgow, promised us aid, but ill health prevented. The help, however, which he promised was given by other willing hands. We introduce his name that we may be permitted to say that such men can be ill spared. No worthier representative of a British merchant could there be. A man of wide sympathies, great taste and culture, of gentle birth and breeding, he was one of the heads of a great house that has for long helped every great and good object in connection with the city.
Of the public men who were living when this work was first projected, some have already passed away, and of these four are included in our history. Another who died recently would have found a place had the work not been too far advanced. No history of Glasgow can be complete without reference to the name of James Arthur - a king among merchants - a man who, during the brief period of less than forty years, created by his own genius and marvellous administrative power, first a great retail, and then wholesale business greater than any other in Great Britain. He needs no monument but his name.
Since the last paragraph was written another Glasgow landmark has been removed. The death of Walter Macfarlane leaves a blank that will be difficult to fill up. He was a Glasgow man, the maker of his own fortune and the founder of a great business, a business mainly created by the beauty of his designs and the excellence of the workmanship, coupled with admirable organization. The Saracen Foundry was originally in the Gallowgate; more space being necessary it was removed to Washington Street, and afterwards to Possilpark. Mr. Macfarlane's house in Park Circus tells us of his taste and of his love of Art.
Many other names might have been mentioned here - not forgotten names, but omitted names - names that will ever be green and fresh as long as memory holds its place in local history; but to mention more, we ought to mention many, for many who helped to make the city great have been removed since our work was projected.
We have pleasure in testifying to the care and trouble Messrs. Maclure & Macdonald have taken in the execution of the work entrusted to them.
THE PUBLISHERS.
61 ST. VINCENT STREET,
GLASGOW, October 31, 1885.
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