The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 2 (of 2): This Way to Gretna GreenHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 2 (of 2): This Way to Gretna Green
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Description and travel; Scotland -- Description and travel
The line was cast, the fish caught, and the ring duly found and
returned to the King, who was thus completely hoodwinked. Our
sympathies are rather with the King, over this business, than with the
Queen, or the saint, who does not seem to have been able to withstand
a woman’s tears or the desire of showing-off; even though it were in a
questionable cause.
But he was equal to any emergency. Preaching once to a great crowd, to
whom he was almost inaudible and invisible, owing to the flatness of
the ground he stood on, he caused a mound to grow up beneath his feet,
and prophesied that Glasgow should rise as the mound had done.
Finally he died in A.D. 603, and was buried on the site where Glasgow
Cathedral stands.
[Sidenote: _THE ARMS OF GLASGOW_]
The arms of Glasgow illustrate many of these stories, but were not
adopted until toward the close of the sixteenth century, the earliest
representation of them being found sculptured over the entrance to
the Tron Kirk, and dated 1592. They were heraldically formulated in
modern times, and, in the language of heralds, are: “Argent, on a mount
in base, an oak-tree proper: the stem and bole thereof surmounted by
a salmon on its back, also proper, with a signet-ring in its mouth,
or; on top of the tree a redbreast, and on the sinister fess point an
ancient bell, both also proper”: the bell referring to one he is said
to have brought from Rome. The crest includes a half-length of the
saint, in the act of benediction, and the supporters are two salmon.
[Illustration: GLASGOW CATHEDRAL, AND THE NECROPOLIS.]
Although the arms are modern, the same, or similar, devices appeared
upon the common seal of Glasgow from an early period: the mound,
however, being a comparatively recent addition, necessitated by the
hazel branch having become, by some unexplained species of evolution,
an oak tree. The earliest representation of the mound is said to be
that shown on the bell of Tron Kirk, which also first exhibits the
famous Glasgow motto, which, in its original and unexpurgated form:
“Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word and praising
Thy name,” is to be found over the entrance to Blackfriars Church.
The theological and missionary complexion of this aspiration was
completely obscured in 1699, when the abbreviated form was first used
as the city motto: the inference, to satirical minds, now being “Let
Glasgow Flourish—by all means.”
Popular disbelief in these miraculous things is expressed in the lines:
This is the tree that never sprang,
This is the bird that never sang,
This is the bell that never rang,
This is the fish that never swam.
St. Enoch Church, built in 1780, and the St. Enoch terminus both, in
a way, owe their names to Kentigern. St. Enoch is a name you will not
find in the hierarchy of saints. There was never any such person, the
name being merely a corruption of that of Thenewth, the mother of
Kentigern.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account