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DERIVATIONS AND CONJECTURES.

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Glossographia (1670), where the word Rot is defined to be a term of war; six men (be they pikes or musqueteers) make a Rot or file;' and also from Cole's Dictionary (1685), where a similar meaning is given. From these authorities, Mr. Thompson is led to infer, that the term Rotten Row is a corruption of the name originally applied to the place where the feudal lord of a town or village held his Rother or muster, and where the Rots, into which his vassals were divided, assembled for the purpose of military exercise.*

This last etymology has certainly much to plead in its favour: but it is not the last derivation that can be

brought forward. For example, an American lady, Madame Octavia Walton le Vert,† derives the word Rotten Row (she is speaking of London) from Route du Roi, saying that the ride is reserved for those on horseback, and that the Queen's carriage alone is permitted in that exclusive place; and if we were inclined to transfer this etymology to Glasgow, we should be able to find facts to strengthen our supposition. Thus, Rotten Row was the occasional residence of the Scottish monarchs, who would pass along it on their way to the High Church; where also Edward I. went daily during the three days that he spent at the Grey Friars' monastery and so it may have been called the King's Route.' It may; but it would appear to be derived from the word rotten or routine-from the Latin rota, ́a wheel,' whence we get 'rotation,' &c.—and to have been so called because the processions of the Church passed along it. This meaning clearly suits the Glas

*Notes and Queries, 1st s. v. 160.

Souvenirs of Travel, published in 1857.

Professor Innes, however, in his Sketches of Early Scotch History, speaking of Glasgow, says: The houses of the dean and canons, and

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gow Rotten Row; and might also be applied to its London namesake, hard by Westminster Abbey. It also suits a Rotten Row near to Alnwick Castle, for the "Row' evidently was the path leading to the Abbey.

The leading streets of Glasgow take the form of a cross, the point of intersection being at the Trongate. This form of the most important streets also existed at the early period to which we have just been referring; but the point of intersection was then at the Bell o' the Brae part of High Street, where Rotten Row would form the western arm, and the Drygate the eastern. This Drygate was at that time one of the chief streets : the Royal Mint was there, and the houses of several of the nobility. But its most interesting historical association is, that here were the lodgings of Lord Darnley, during the time of his temporary separation from Mary. Here he lay grievously ill of the small-pox, and upon his earnestly desiring to see his wife, hither she came from Edinburgh to visit him. She rode to Glasgow from Callander House, the abode of her faithful Protestant friends, Lord and Lady Livingstone, where she had supped and slept the previous night; and after a long and tedious ride through the bad roads and wintry weather of a January day, reached Darnley's lodgings at the edge of night. She had brought with her her own litter, for the greater comfort of her husband on his proposed removal from Glasgow to Craigmillar Castle, where she had made every pre

of the cathedral vicars, were in the neighbourhood, and chiefly along the street bearing the ancient ecclesiastical name of Rotton-row.' And, he adds in a foot-note: It will be observed that the framers of these deeds adopted the popular etymology, via rattonum. The name is now generally supposed to be derived from Routine Row-an unsatisfactory etymology.' (P. 66.)

*Miss Strickland's Queens of Scotland, v. 117.

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DARNLEY AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. paration that should tend to his recovery. After the Queen's arrival in Glasgow, and probably in consequence of her tender attention to his comfort, Darnley progressed so rapidly in his convalescence that, within three days, he was able to commence his journey under her care, and that night they reached Callander. In four days after, they had arrived at Edinburgh; where, instead of proceeding to Craigmillar Castle, as Mary had proposed, Darnley hastened to his own destruction, by accepting those lodgings in the Kirk-of-Field which had been selected for him by the ministers, who were all secretly leagued with Morton and the returned outlaws for the murder.* We all know the fatal termination to this tale, and the ruin that followed Mary upon her supposed participation in the crime. I say 'supposed,' for, in the face of the strong evidence brought forward to the contrary, I cannot believe that she had any knowledge of, much less share in, one of the most odious crimes ever committed. So that standing here in the Drygate of Glasgow, near to the house where Darnley lodged, I can only see a young and loving wife hastening to rejoin her sick and repentant husband.

* Miss Strickland's Queens of Scotland, v. 129, 132.

CHAPTER VIII.

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A SCOTCH CATHEDRAL.

The Old Barony Church--Improvements since Rob Roy's
Day-The Waigh Kirk-Present State of the Crypt-St.
Mungo's Tomb-Relics and their Worshippers-Credibility and
Gullibility St. Mungo's History-First Impressions of the
Cathedral-Its Service-Its Restoration and Antecedents-
Benefactors to the Work-Early History and Foundation-
The Choir, Pulpit, Bible, and Bell-Stained Glass-The
Munich Windows-Exterior of Cathedral-Destruction of the
West Tower-South-west View-The Burial Ground-Old
Restrictions on the Women's Worship.

EAVING the precincts of the narrow, uphill, twisting

High Street, with its wretched closes and wynds, we come upon a fine open space where we can both breathe and move more freely. Before us is the Infirmary, a finelooking structure, built on the site of the old castle, or palace of the bishop. To our right is the Barony Church, built in 1801, from the designs of Adams, the architect of the Infirmary; it is in wretched taste, and the less said about it the better. But it is necessary to refer to it, as it was built for the accommodation of the worshippers in that old Barony Church, in the magnificent crypt of the cathedral, of which Pennant says, the congregation may truly have said Clamavi e profundis;' and of which Sir Walter Scott has introduced the following oft-quoted description in the pages of 'Rob Roy':

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We entered a small low-arched door, secured by a wicket, which a grave-looking person seemed on the point of closing, and descended several steps, as if into the funeral-vaults beneath the church. It was even so, for in these subterranean precincts, why chosen for such a purpose I knew not, was established a very singular place of worship. Conceive, Tresham, an extensive range of low-browed, dark, and twilight vaults, such as are used for sepulchres in other countries, and has long been dedicated to the same purpose in this, a portion of which was seated with pews, and used as a church. The part of the vaults thus occupied, though capable of containing a congregation of many hundreds, bore a small proportion to the darker and more extensive caverns which yawned around what may be termed the inhabited space. In those waste regions of oblivion, dusky banners and battered escutcheons indicated the graves of those who were once, doubtless, "princes in Israel." Inscriptions which could only be read by the painful antiquary, in language as obsolete as the acts of devotional charity which they implored, invited the passengers to pray for the souls of those whose bodies rested beneath. Surrounded by those receptacles of the last remains of mortality, I found a numerous congregation engaged in the act of prayer.' *

It was in this church in the catacombs, it will be remembered, that Frank Osbaldistone received his mysterious warning to give Rob Roy the midnight meeting on the bridge. These subterranean vaults and charnelhouses formed the Barony Church-the Laigh Kirk of Glasgow,' which Andrew Fairservice so greatly preferred to that High Church' just over their heads, where

Rob Roy, ii. chap. 3.

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