The
Crowd Through Which I Passed Had That Squalid Appearance Which Marks
Extreme Poverty And Uncertain Means Of Subsistence, And I Was Able To Form
Some Idea Of The Prodigious Number Of This Class In A Populous City Of
Great Britain Like Glasgow.
For populous she is, and prosperous as a city,
increasing with a rapidity almost equal to that of New York, and already
she numbers, it is estimated, three hundred thousand inhabitants.
Of
these it is said that full one-third are Irish by birth or born of Irish
parents.
The next day, which was Sunday, before going to church, I walked towards
the west part of the city; where the streets are broad and the houses
extremely well-built, of the same noble material as the new town of
Edinburgh; and many of the dwellings have fine gardens. Their sites in
many places overlook the pleasant valley of the Clyde, and I could not
help acknowledging that Glasgow was not without claim to the epithet of
beautiful, which I should have denied her if I had formed my judgment from
the commercial streets only. The people of Glasgow also have shown their
good sense in erecting the statues which adorn their public squares, only
to men who have some just claim to distinction. Here are no statues, for
example, of the profligate Charles II., or the worthless Duke of York, or
the silly Duke of Cambridge, as you will see in other cities; but here the
marble effigy of Walter Scott looks from a lofty column in the principal
square, and not far from it is that of the inventor Watt; while the
statues erected to military men are to those who, like Wellington, have
acquired a just renown in arms.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 167 of 396
Words from 45056 to 45349
of 107287
