A LITTLE way above its meeting with
the Clyde, the river Kelvin rushes dinsomely over a rocky bottom, and is
in several places dammed up by artificial barriers for the service of the
extensive Corporation Mills. The channel also is here spanned by a
time-honoured bridge, which commands a picturesque prospect of the more
ancient portion of the old-fashioned town, many of the houses around being
evidently of no recent date.
The Mills of Partick, as is
generally known, have for many years belonged to the Incorporation of
Bakers in our city, to whom they were granted by the Regent Murray, after
the victory of Langside. It is said the Glasgow
baxters of
that day, besides supplying his army with bread while it continued in the
neighbourhood, actually sent an armed deputation of their number to assist
the Regent in his encounter with the Queen’s forces. This party, it seems,
did good service on the occasion, and materially aided in the overthrow of
the unfortunate Queen’s adherents.
On his return to the city after this
decisive battle, Murray publicly expressed his gratitude to the bakers for
the important services which they had rendered; upon which Matthew
Fawside, the Deacon, who seems to have estimated properly the value of
mere word gratitude, shrewdly seized the golden opportunity, and humbly
suggested that a gift of the Crown mills at Pertigue, by way of
acknowledgment, would be highly acceptable to the Incorporation.
The Regent, who was naturally in
high spirits at the time, acceded to the opportune request, and granted
the mills to the sturdy craftsmen, in whose hands they continued to grow
and flourish. The establishments went on gradually extending their
productive powers, as the wants of the community increased, until they
became of the most stately dimensions. Some years ago a destructive fire
consumed a large portion of the buildings, on the site of which a most
imposing and commanding fabric of the most substantial kind has been
erected, and fitted up in the best manner with the most recent and
approved mechanical appliances. The Incorporation to whom they belong is
one of the most wealthy in the city.
