THIS property is situated on the north side of the old Edinburgh highway, about one mile and a half eastward from the Cross. In the time of Cromwell it belonged to a family named Boyd, three generations of whom, viz., father, son, and grandson, were clergymen. They were related to the celebrated Zachary Boyd, minister of the Barony parish, from 1623 till 1654. One of these Boyds, named William, was educated for the ministry, during the time of the Covenanters, at Breda, in Holland, and was the first minister of the parish of Dalry, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, after the Revolution. He died in 1740. His son, Andrew, was incumbent of the parish of Twynholm, in the same Stewartry, from 1727 till his death in 1761. Again, the son of this divine, named William, after his grandfather, was presented by the Earl of Galloway to the parish of Penningham, Wigtonshire, in 1760, where he officiated till he died, circa 1795. This reverend gentleman possessed considerable property in Glasgow, by inheritance, and purchased the small estate of Merton Hall, near Newton-Stewart, on which is a fine mansion, still in the ownership of his descendants. (1)
In 1779, this last-named clergyman sold Slatefield to Mr. William Miller, then of Balornock, a native of Stirlingshire, who, in the year after, built the mansion represented in the photograph, where he resided nearly thirty years. It was a beautiful place in its prime, embosomed among trees, and perfectly retired. The house faces south, and stands nearly midway between what is now Eastern Gallowgate, off which the avenue opened, and the old Carntyne road, now Eastern Duke Street. In front, the grounds were laid out in lawn, orchard, and shrubbery. Two large draped classical figures stood in the latter, against tall dark bushes, and had a peculiarly eerie effect in the gloom. They were popularly known as "The While Ladies," and long formed objects of attraction to walkers with their juveniles, from the then comparatively small city, along the rural highway, as seen through the bars of the old-fashioned gate, with its queerish porter-lodge of two storeys, over which projected a six-pounder cannon. (2) Behind the mansion was a large walled garden with grape, peach, and green-houses, while all around were fields in pasture, divided by hawthorn hedges, interspersed with crab-apple, geen, and pear trees.
It is difficult to realize all this now, in the great changes to which the whole of that district has been subjected.
Mr. Miller died in 1808, and was succeeded by his only child, Mrs. Catherine Miller, wife of the late Mr. John Buchanan, merchant in Glasgow; and at her death, in 1841, Slatefield became the property of her eldest son, Dr. William Miller Buchanan, of the Bengal Army, now residing in Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh. The property has since been devoted to feuing purposes, like all the others in that district, and the front ground is built up. The line of the new railway to Coatbridge runs close behind the house; while a street, named "Slatefield Street," has been formed through the grounds, connecting Eastern Gallowgate with Duke Street, and will serve in future to indicate where Slatefield lay.
[1878.]
The writer of this notice, John Buchanan, LL.D., with characteristic modesty has refrained from putting himself in as the younger son of John Buchanan and Catherine Miller. Dr. Buchanan contributed a large proportion of the letter-press to this book, which specially interested him. Any one who has read his other contributions (under the well known initials J. B.) to our local antiquities, will at once recognise his articles by their easy and racy style and minute information. It was hoped that he would have given his kind help to this new edition. But ill health has hindered his doing more than make a few verbal changes on what he had written. We hope that he may soon be again among us.
This hope was not to be realised. We shall never again see the tall thin figure, the buttoned up frock coat, and the high stock, the kindly humorous face, and the keen eyes peering through the spectacles. The day the above note was printed we received intimation of our old friend's death. He died in his house, 17 Lansdowne Crescent, on Friday, the 28th June. We need not say how much he was respected and beloved by all who knew him, nor how irreparable his loss is to all who shared his special tastes. He was well read in general literature and in history, especially in Scotch history : but his favourite study was Archaeology, and most of all the Archaeology of his native city. He loved Old Glasgow with a lover's love : he had made it his study from boyhood, and a knowledge of it dies with him that can never be replaced. A diligent student may recover as much of the past as lies buried in Books and Chartularies, and there is some hope that this work may ere long be done by one every way fitted for it. But John Buchanan had a minute personal knowledge of those who once lived here that written records cannot give. The Glasgow of a hundred years ago he knew as few know the Glasgow of to-day. Its old merchants and bankers, its ministers and professors, its beaux and its belles, still lived for him : he had known them from their cradles, and their fathers and mothers before them : he knew where they had been trained and the use they had made of their training, whom they had married and whom they had tried to marry, where they lived and how they lived, where they died and where they lie. And he had the rare art to make them live again for our benefit. At his bidding they rose from the Ramshorn or the High Kirkyard, and once more paced the plane stanes in red cloak and cocked hat, or tramped the Trongate in pattens and calèche. In this book his help was invaluable. No one but himself could have written "Kelvingrove," "Stobcross," and other papers that will be readily recognized.
No one will ever give us such papers again, so full, so accurate, so racy, and withal so genial. He must have known queer things about every old family in the place, but he never wrote a line that could give pain to any one: it was not in his nature. He was singularly modest and simple minded, and he was probably as much surprised as gratified when, in 1872, the University of Glasgow gave him the degree of LL.D.
He was born at Slatefield on 3rd November 1802, so that he had reached the goodly age of seventy-five. He was bred a writer, and served his apprenticeship with Mr. Andrew Ballingall. He was then for some years in the office of Campbell & Barlas. The senior partner of this excellent firm was Alexander Campbell of Bedlay, a fine old place, which from his boyhood was a favourite houff and study of our old friend's. "Bedlay" was one of the many charming papers that he wrote for this book, and it as at his suggestion that its "antique edifice" was stamped on the cover. John Buchanan passed procurator in 1836, and was the oldest member of the Faculty except seven. He was for some time associated with the late Charles A. King of Woodneuk under the firm of King & Buchanan, writers. But he was better known in connection with banking. He was for many years Secretary to the Western Bank, and after that "monetary establishment" closed its doors, he was Manager of the Eastern branch of the British Linen Co. By his wife, Mary Macarthur, he had three daughters, of whom one married William Carrick, Accountant, and one, William Holmes, M.P. for Paisley. His remains have an appropriate resting place, beside his wife, in the High Churchyard, in which he will be among the last to be laid.
(1) One of this minister's grandsons, named Benjamin Boyd, had a tragical fate. About thirty years ago, he went out to Australia in a yacht and proceeded on a cruise among the Solomon Islands, forming part of the vast archipelago of New Guinea. He landed on one of these from a small boat, to shoot wild pigeons, accompanied only by an Australian boy. The natives hearing the firing seized Mr. Boyd and the boy, and made an attack on the yacht. The crew fired in self-defence, and killed several blacks, but were obliged to sheer off without Mr. Boyd. Nothing further was heard about him for many years, but it was said he was still alive, in captivity. At length the British Government, on the application of Mr. Boyd's friends, sent a war ship. The officers ascertained at the island, that he had been murdered in revenge for the deaths of the blacks, but that the Australian boy was still living. He was recovered and stated that one chief wished very much to spare Mr. Boyd, but another of a peculiarly brutal character, and still on the island, put him to death with his own hand. The officers demanded the latter chief, but he took refuge on a reef where they could not land. The miscreant was therefore shot dead from the boat, as a punishment for the murder. A number of articles were delivered up which had belonged to Mr. Boyd, with his initials, &c., incised upon them. Thus the uncertainty which so long hung over his fate was removed.
(2) This queer old porter-lodge was demolished in 1867. The cannon is, however, still extant as a curiosity.
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