Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

;—'—PAISLEYthe reference library contains nearly 6000 volumes.The nucleus of the contents of the museum and over5000 of the books in the valuable reference library werepresented by the Paisley Philosophical Society, whichwas originally established in 1808. Other publicbuildings are the Baths, the Good Templars' Hall (1881),the Masonic Hall (1884), the Liberal Club, the ConservativeClub (1880), the Oakshaw Memorial School, andthe DriU Hall. The barracks in the suburb of Williamsburgh,to the E of the town, on the S side ofthe Glasgow road, erected in 1822, and with accommodationfor a battalion of infantry, are now disused andempty. On the opposite side of the road are the militiabarracks. The Coffee-room buildings at the Cross,erected in 1809, Ionic in style, contain a large readingroom,with Fillans' bust of Professor Wilson, and oneof Lord Clyde. The Exchange buildings on the E sideof Moss Street, erected in 1837, and occupying thesite of a former flesh market, are now partly used as atheatre. The infirmary, in Bridge Street, dates from1784, but the present building was erected about 1850.It has accommodation for 250 patients. About 1000indoor patients and from 4000 to 5000 outdoor patientsare treated annually. The dispensary attached is openevery day from 11 to 12 o'clock, and medicine is dispensedbetween 4 and 5. The poorhouse for Abbeyparish, about a mile SSW of the town near Riccartsbar,is an Elizabethan structure (1850), with buildingsdisposed round two courts, and with accommodationfor 555 inmates. Beside it is the parochial lunaticasylum, which has accommodation for 98 inmatesand further W is the burgh lunatic asylum, erectedin 1876. This has a main building of T shape, with alarge entrance-hall and kitchen, dining-hall, etc. , in thecentral portion. The wards for male and femalepatients are on each side, and the engine-house, washing-houseand laundry, are behind the main building.The cost, exclusive of site, was £12,500, and there isaccommodation for 120 patients. The cemetery, laidout in 1845, is on Woodside ridge in the old town, andincludes the old Broomlauds churchyard, which was laidout about 1779. It is beautifully situated and laid out,and contains some good monuments, including that toAlgie and Park already noticed ; one erected by publicsubscription in 1867 in memory of the Chartists, Hardie,Baird, and Wilson, who were executed at Stirling andGlasgow in 1820 ; one to Fillans, with a fine figure ofRachael weeping for her children ; one to the Rev.Patrick Brewster (1788-1859), long minister of theAbbey church ; and one to Andrew Park (1807-63), alocal poet. There are also burying-grounds at severalof the churches.Three bridges cross the river Cart (exclusive of therailway bridges), and connect the old and new towns.The old stone bridge at the end of High Street used tobe very narrow and inconvenient, as were also the othertwo, but under the Improvement Act of 1877 they haveall been greatly widened and improved, the old Sneddon*Bridge (now known as Abercorn Bridge) and Seedhillor Abbey Bridge having been reconstructed with irongirders, and the Old Bridge itself again farther improvedin connection with the erection of the ClarkHall. When the first tolbooth was erected is notexactly known — seemingly by Abbot Tervas in the15th centm-y—but by the middle of the 18th centurythe existing one had become very insecure, and in 1756the magistrates resolved to erect a new one at the Cross,on the -same site, at a cost of £325. It had a steeple ofconsiderable height, wliich remained tiU 1870. It wasperfectly sound till 1868, but in that year a deep draindug near it injured the foundation, which had alreadybecome somewhat insecure in consequence of the streetlevel having been lowered, and it began to lean over ina dangerous manner. It was at first shored up, but wasordered to be taken down in 1869. An unsuccessfulattempt was made to interdict the magistrates fromremoving it, and it disappeared completely in 1870. It* Sneddon was acquired by the town in 1655 and feued in 1749.The name is supposed to be a corruption of Snowdoun.152PAISLEYwas at the Cross Steeple that public executions latterlytook place, and the bats to which the gibbet was.fastened are now in the museum. The Abbey groundswere first feued in 1757 by Lord Dundonald, and a considerableportion of the Abbey ruins were used asbuilding material by the feuars in the erection of thehouses adjoining the Abbey. Some of these wereremoved in 1874, including the town houses of Abercornand Dundonald, but others still remain. A house inHigh Street in the old Scottish style, with the arms ofthe Sempills on its front, was erected in 1862 on thesite of Lord SempiU's old town mansion. In 1618 thetown council erected a To^vn's Hospital on the N side ofHigh Street with materials taken from the old chapel ofSt Roque, and part of the building became subsequentlya school. In 1723 the old building was taken down,and a new one erected, which contained a public halland a clock steeple known as the 'Wee Steeple,' inwhich there was a bell which was rung when funeralswere passing. On one part of it was the inscriptionand on another*He that hath pitie on the porOf grace and mereie sail be sor ;'Quha gives the puir, to God he lend9,And God, again, mare grace him sends.'The school was removed to a building in School Wyndin 1788, and in 1807 the whole buildings were disposedof, and the house No. 82 High Street erected on thesite. The house in which Professor Wilson—ChristopherNorth—was born, on the S side of High Street,and another house in which he spent his boyhood, alsoin High Street immediately to the W, both still remaindirectly opposite the Free Library, though the first hasbeen altered. The position of the house in which thepoet Tannahill was born, iu Castle Street, is marked bya tablet placed on the house that now occupies the site ;and the house in which he spent most of his life andwrote most of his songs— a cottage built by his fatherstill stands in Queen Street farther to the W. The house,in Seedhill, in which the poet and American ornithologist,Alexander Wilson, was born, was demolished in 1841, butthe house by which it was replaced is marked by a marbletablet with the inscription—' This tablet was erected in1841 by David Anderson, Perth, to mark the birthplaceof Alexander Wilson, Paisley, poet and American ornithologist.'A statue of Wilson was erected within theAbbey grounds in 1874 at a cost of about £700. Itconsists of a bronze statue 7 feet 6 inches high, restingona pedestal of grey granite 10 feet high. The figure,which was modelled by J. G. Mossman, Glasgow, showsthe naturalist leaning against the stump of a tree witha bird in his hand, while his gun is behind him, hishat and portfolio at his feet, and his favourite blueparrot close at hand. Not far distant is the bronzestatue erected in 1883 as a memorial of Tannahill thepoet. The statue is 7 feet 6 inches high, and is set ona red granite pedestal. The motive is furnished by abronse bas-relief affixed to the front of the pedestal.This shows three country girls,is singing from a ballad which she holds in her hand,while her companions listen. There is a tradition thatTannahill during a solitary country walk once hearda group of girls thus intently occupied with one of hisown songs, and the statue here represents the poet inthe supposed attitude of an unseen listener. The statueand bas-relief Avere designed and executed by D. W.Stevenson, A.R.S.A., Edinburgh. The total cost wasabout £1200, and the funds were provided by a series ofconcerts which have been given for the last eight ornine years on the braes of Gleniffer. It is proposedalso to erect a bronze statue in memory of Mr ThomasCoats of Ferguslie ; and thus the town is by degreeswiping away the old reproach laid to its charge thatalthough Paisley had produced so many famous men,monuments in honour of them were less numerous thanin some towns that had produced few or none. TheFountain Gardeus, on the N side of the town betweenLove Street and Caledonia Street, and extending to overof whom the centre one