They included and ran along the south face of the brae, crowned by the Rotten Row, which brae is the last spur of the high ground before it sinks into the flat haughs of Clyde. If a man, Ramni, did possess or cultivate this ground, it is probable enough that the hill and adjacent ground would get the name of Ramnishoren. After the Reformation the lands of Ramshorn were feued out by Walter Stewart, the Commendator of Blantyre, by charter, dated 21st December, 1588, to James Foullis, of Collington, and Agnes Heriot, his wife. After passing through the hands of several other proprietors, all of whom are mentioned by Mr. Hill, in his admirable History of Hutcheson's Hospital, the lands were bought in 1609 by George Hutcheson, the founder of the Hospital. From him they descended to Ninian Hill, who in 1694 sold them to the Magistrates of Glasgow for the Merchants' House, the Trades' House, and Hutcheson's Hospital. Ultimately the whole purchase, costing 20,300 marks, was shoved over on to Hutcheson's Hospital. With a frankness which verges on cynicism, the Magistrates minuted that the purchase was made for the express purpose of preventing the lands from being improved to the prejudice of the town. The reason of this fear was that at this time these lands were outwith the burgh, and so free from burgh imposts. When the Magistrates did convey them to the Hospital, they imposed various burdens, grievous to be borne, and retained the superiority. The whole thing, in fact, was an "iniquitous job." In 1694 and for nearly a century afterwards the Ramshorn lands were let to small farmers. Very small farmers they must have been, for on Ramshorn and Meadowflat, amounting together only to thirty-five acres, there were several tenants; one of whom had only three acres. Noisy grumbling tenants they were too, always demanding a reduction of rent. loss on the rent, the Hospital opened several quarries. To make up for the One of them was not a success. The lessee craved for an abatement of rent, and stigmatised the stone "as being a dour stone ill to work and wanting in baith back and belly." The Hospital kept the Meadowflat and Ramshorn lands till 1772, when they sold them to the Town for a feu-duty of £113 10s. In addition, the Town I SPP. 90-91. paid £2,020, but it is not certain how much of this effeirs to Deanside and Cribbs bought by them at the same time. In 1718 the Magistrates resolved to build another church in Glasgow, and they bought from the Hospital a part of Ramshorn for the kirk and kirkyard. It is somewhat curious that they should have placed this church outside of the town's boundaries. The site was occupied as a market garden, and the tenants got "compensation for disturbance," as appears from the following entry in the Town Records':-"13th Jan., 1719, ordain John Orr, late "Treasurer, to pay to William Steward, elder and yr gardeners, tacksmen of "Hutcheson's Hospitalls yeard at the head of the Candleriggs, the soume of "£108 16s. 4d. Scots money in full satisfaction to them for the loss and "damage by the rooting out of their berry and aple trees, goose berry, and curren busses, kaill, leeks, and other ground herbs upon the one rood and "ane half taken off the said yeard for a church and churchyeard to be builded "thereupon, and benefit of the gooding of the said ground." The first Ramshorn Church was built in 1720, and M'Ure is enthusiastic about it even for him. "There are," he says, "two considerable buildings lately "finished within this city, viz., that stately and magnificent structure, the "North-west Kirk; it lies at the head of the new street in a pleasant valley, "and is of length from east to west 27 ells, and in breadth at the west end "26 ells. It has stately Wainscot loafts round, and a curious pulpit opposite "to the Magistrates' loaft, and below contains about one hundred and seventy"four seats or pews for the hearers. It is illuminated with curious shorn "windows, and a fine roof curiously painted; it hath no pillars to support it, "yet this and the new church contains more people than any two churches in "the city; and it is beautified with a stately high steeple of one hundred and "forty-one feet high. It has a curious prospect decorating four streets, viz., "the new street, Tron Street, King's Street, and Bridge Street; the steeple "hath four dial-plates and a large clock and bell, with a burial-yard and dyke, "about 230 ells round, with the proprietors' burial-places and inscriptions." A picture of the church, which roused M'Ure to such enthusiasm, will be found in "Glasgow Delineated." It is not beautiful, but considering the 1 Memorabilia of Glasgow, 1868, p. 337. 2 A View of the City of Glasgow, 1736, p. 285. 3 p. 21. time when it was built, it might have been worse. It was taken down early in the century, and the present church built on its site. The architect of the new church was Mr. Rickman, but Dr. Cleland got hold of the plans, and, after being for two days and two nights in labour, brought forth the crypt. There is a caricature in Heath's Northern Looking-Glass, showing people falling down the very steep front stair. When the new church was built, part of the church-yard was thrown into Ingram Street, to widen it, and we now walk over the dust of many a city father. The Glasgow Herald of 24th July, 1884, contained a list of lair-holders in the Ramshorn Burying Ground, published under the "Glasgow Public Parks Act, 1878," which was of interest. By that advertisement notice was given to the representatives of these lair-holders that if they did not repair and restore their monuments, the Town would remove them. The notice has done some good, and several of the grave-stones and tablets have been repaired. For long the north-west or Ramshorn burying-ground was the most fashionable in Glasgow. In it were buried many of the foremost of our citizens. There were buried the great John Glassford; Alexander or "Picture" Gordon, of Stirling, Gordon & Co.; John Wilson, of Kelvinbank, the well-known townclerk; Nicol Brown, of Waterhaughs; Arthur Connell, Provost, and a mighty merchant; Charles Wilsone, gentlest of Surgeons; William Angus, probably the most successful teacher ever known in Glasgow; John Campbell, Sen., the great West India merchant; George Stirling, of the old line of Stirlings; Collector William Corbett; James Henderson, of Enoch Bank; Robert Gray, the great silversmith; Robin Carrick, of the Ship Bank. But to give a list of all the well-known men who owned lairs or were buried in this kirkyard would be endless, and tend but little to edification, while to write a full notice of them would need a volume. TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. No. XI. NOTE ON A BROADSWORD FOUND AT AUCHENTORLIE, DUMBARTONSHIRE, AND AN BY DAVID MURRAY, LL.D., F.S.A. Scot. [Read at a Meeting of the Society held on 9th February, 1891.] It is a The THE BROADSWORD is the property of Mr. Fergusson with two parallel grooves or channels on each side. There are corresponding grooves on the other side, and four heads similar to those on the other side, but no lettering is visible. It is a reasonable conjection, however, that the letters of the word "FERARA" or "FARARA" alternated with the heads. The heads are surmounted by thick broad-brimmed hats of a Spanish or Moorish type. The edges of the blade are much hacked, but it still retains its temper, and can be easily bent. Claverhouse's sword, lent to the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888 by the Duke of Montrose, has the word "ANDREA" on the one side and "FARARA" on the other, with a series (said to be seven) of crowned heads on each side. Its length is 33% inches, breadth at the junction 13% inches, and grip 31⁄2 inches in length. The two weapons, therefore, very closely correspond in general appearance and are presumably by the same maker. The style of the heads on the present sword gives some support to the suggestion that Feraria blades were originally of Spanish manufacture, and took their names from Feraria in the province of Corunna. Ferreira, it will be remembered, is a common Portuguese surname. The dagger or rapier is the property of Mr. Robert Buchanan of the Star Foundry, Dumbarton. It has been many years in the possession of his wife's family, and is understood to have come from Dumbarton Castle. It has been fitted with a wooden handle and used as a screw driver. Mr. Buchanan's attention having, however, been attracted by something unusual in its appearance, he had it cleaned, when its real nature was disclosed. The blade is now 71⁄2 inches in length, but has been broken, and was originally longer. The upper part, 41⁄2 inches, is engraved with scroll work of geometrical design, and bears two well-known mottoes-on the one side, Ne me tirer pas sans raison; on the other, Ne me remettez point sans honneur. The lettering is in the style of the 17th or early part of the 18th century. The lower part of the blade is on each side ground into three flat and equal faces. It is not easy to say how much of the blade has been broken away. What remains is edgeless, and suggests that the weapon was not a dagger but a rapier, but the taper is hardly consistent with the length of that weapon. 1 See Scottish National Memorials, pp. 118, 261. |