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The Cultural Memory of Georgian Glasgow
The first interdisciplinary exploration of eighteenth-century Glasgow
Approaches Glasgow's history as a guide to the cultural memory of the city read through traditional historical and literary analysis
Engages with primary sources such as contemporary literature, journalism, and ephemera from a range of institutions and archives
Sets out a methodological blueprint for new research into other cities or civic spaces
This book provides a long overdue reading of Scotland’s largest city as it was during the long eighteenth century. These formative years of Enlightenment, caught between the tumultuous ages of the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution, cast Glasgow in a new and vibrant light. Far from being a dusty metropolis lying in wait for the famous age of shipbuilding, Glasgow was already an imperial hub: as implicated in mass migration and slavery as it was in civic growth and social progression.
Craig Lamont incorporates case studies such as the Scottish Enlightenment, the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Eighteenth Century Print Culture to investigate how the city was shaped by the emergence of new trades and new ventures in philosophy, fine art, science, and religion. The book merges historical, literary and memory studies to provide an original blueprint for new research into other cities or civic spaces.
Approaches Glasgow's history as a guide to the cultural memory of the city read through traditional historical and literary analysis
Engages with primary sources such as contemporary literature, journalism, and ephemera from a range of institutions and archives
Sets out a methodological blueprint for new research into other cities or civic spaces
This book provides a long overdue reading of Scotland’s largest city as it was during the long eighteenth century. These formative years of Enlightenment, caught between the tumultuous ages of the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution, cast Glasgow in a new and vibrant light. Far from being a dusty metropolis lying in wait for the famous age of shipbuilding, Glasgow was already an imperial hub: as implicated in mass migration and slavery as it was in civic growth and social progression.
Craig Lamont incorporates case studies such as the Scottish Enlightenment, the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Eighteenth Century Print Culture to investigate how the city was shaped by the emergence of new trades and new ventures in philosophy, fine art, science, and religion. The book merges historical, literary and memory studies to provide an original blueprint for new research into other cities or civic spaces.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2021
About the author
Craig Lamont
13 booksCraig Lamont is Lecturer in Scottish Studies at the University of Glasgow, working across Scottish Literature and Scottish History. He has worked on the Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Allan Ramsay and the Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns, and has published new editions of Dorothy K. Haynes. He co-edited 1820: Scottish Rebellion, Essays on a Nineteenth-Century Insurrection (2022). His monograph The Cultural Memory of Georgian Glasgow was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2021. His chief research interests are memory, print culture, and bibliography.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 3, 2021
I have known Craig Lamont since he was one of the editors of Valve Magazine and I was in charge of Reader Development for East Dunbartonshire Libraries and was also the convener of the Scottish Libraries Reader Development Group. If my memory serves me correctly that is something like 15 years ago now. You will have to judge whether or not this has clouded my judgement.
This book is very much a meditation on how we remember Glasgow from 1714-1837, that is the time of the Hanoverian dynasty from the accession of George I to the accession of Queen Victoria. According to Lamont, this is a period that has been overshadowed in the collective memory by the many achievements of the Victorian Age, but which played a very important part in the creation of the city that we know today.
Lamont makes the very valid point that no-one alive today remembers Georgian Glasgow. Therefore, our individual and collective memories are dependent upon artefacts, such as buildings, literature and survivals in popular culture. He refers to Alasdair Gray’s dismissive remark that Glasgow is remembered by a music all song and some bad novels. In my view, Alastair Gray’s remark relates not to Georgian Glasgow but to its Victorian successor, and I am not sure that it is fair to refer to “No Mean City” or “Dear Green Place” as bad novels. Lamont’s point is that our cultural memory of Georgian Glasgow as been buried under our memory of its successor.
This is where it becomes difficult to convey the nuanced discussion of this book, there are effectively three stories for Georgian Glasgow: the religious and therefore political orientation of the city, Glasgow’s contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment and Glasgow’s role as a city of trade and commerce. There are various substrata to these stories, but these are the three that I intent to concentrate on.
The Religious and Political Orientation of the City.
By 1714, Glasgow was firmly aligned in support of the new dynasty, the Hanoverians. This was decided in 1689 when Presbyterians drove the Episcopalian and Jacobite clergy out of St. Mungo’s Cathedral which became a Church of Scotland High Kirk as it is to this day, even though it is still called a Cathedral. There was an immediate challenge to Hanoverian rule, when the Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard of revolt. The Duke of Argyll led a government army against him and the two armies clashed at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. Argyll retreated from the battlefield, but the Jacobite army collapsed. By the time that the Old Pretender arrived in Scotland, the rebellion was effectively over. Glasgow prepared to defend itself and offered a troop of 500 men to fight the Jacobites. The Hanoverian street-names of the city centre are a testimony to this allegiance, as is the statue of King William III and the existence of the Orange Order with its annual parades. But there have to be doubts that Glasgow’s anti-Jacobite stance has entered into the cultural memory of the city.
Bonnie Prince Charlie avoided Glasgow, except for one brief stay on his retreat to Culloden and eventual disaster. He was not the most wanted of guests, but he did gain an intimate connection with the city in Clementina Walkinshaw, his mistress and the mother of his only child Charlotte. John Galt in his novel Annals of the Parish (pub 1821) named his hero Claud Walkinshaw, which is unlikely to be an accident. Clementina Walkinshaw also figures in Sir Walter Scott’s Redgauntlet. I doubt however that the name resonates with the people of Glasgow nowadays, unless they are a member of the congregation of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. This is because she was an Episcopalian and a member of a previous congregation.
Lamont’s conclusion is that Glasgow was a Presbyterian and Hanoverian city, but that this has not survived as part of the cultural memory of Glasgow. I endorse this view heartily. If anything, the view nowadays is that the Jacobites were patriotic Scots, and that the Jacobite rebellions were wars against England, not Scottish civil wars.
Glasgow’s contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment
This is also problematic because the Scottish Enlightenment is indelibly associated with Edinburgh, despite the fact that the other three Scottish Universities made their own contributions. Two of the most famous names of the Scottish Enlightenment come from Glasgow: James Watt and Adam Smith. Watt’s invention of the steam-powered engine has made him world-famous, and Adam Smith’s book on economic theory, The Wealth of Nations, is a textbook for the subject to this day.
Glasgow however was not the capital of the country. It was not the city where John Murray set up is publishing house, which was probably more influential in establishing Edinburgh as the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment than David Hume’s presence in the city. Murray was the publisher of the two pre-eminent Scottish writers of his generation, Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Glasgow offered John Galt as competition. Robert Burns wrote poetry about Edina fair. It was David versus Goliath, but David did not have a slingshot.
Another factor is that Georgian Edinburgh has survived. Edinburgh still as its New Town, which is still a major centre of cultural activity, the Edinburg Festivals. Pockets of Georgian Glasgow are still in existence – St Andrew’s in the Square and the GOMA building for instance – but the vast majority of it was built over by the Victorians and Edwardians. The artefacts that remain are in places like the Hunterian Museum and the Mitchell Library. It is hardly surprising that, in these circumstances, the Scottish Enlightenment has not had a great impact on the cultural memory of Glasgow.
Glasgow’s role as a city of trade and commerce
This is the part of the history of Georgian Glasgow that has entered the cultural memory. People are aware that Glasgow was a port and a centre of trade and commerce. Virginia Street and Jamaica Street are still there and are a testimony to the trade that took place. There is an awareness of the riches of the Tobacco Lords, the Sugar Barons and the cotton importers, and the wealth that they brought to the city. There is a belief that a member of the Glassford family had a family portrait altered to paint out the black servant, and this has been repeated in respectable family histories as fact. Lamont points out that the truth is more prosaic. When the portrait was recently restored, it was found that a patina of dust had obscured the black servant.
This could be a metaphor for Glasgow’s attitude to slavery and the slave trade. We are aware of the abolitionist societies in Glasgow. Some people may be aware that Adam Smith opposed slavery because it was an inefficient means of production, as well as morally reprehensible. Where there has been a collective amnesia is that we have streets named after people wo profited from slavery, institutions that were built on the profits of slavery, and even statues to people whose family wealth derived from slavery. James Watt and William Ewart Gladstone are cases in point.
Conclusion
Lamont’s conclusion is that the cultural memory of Georgian Glasgow is not a strong one, and that there are many reasons for this. Victorian Glasgow is the city of the shipyards. Railway lines and railways stations were built through whole sections of the city. This is the city that we remember. There is very little in the way of buildings that preserve the memory of Georgian Glasgow. The artefacts are to be found in the museums and art galleries. Glasgow cannot compete with Edinburgh in terms of the literary heritage of the Georgian period.
Georgian Glasgow needs to be remembered if only as the precursor that made Victorian Glasgow possible. Lamont sets out to rectify that gap in our knowledge.
I hope that I have summed Lamont’s arguments up properly. It is difficult to sum up such a nuanced book in a few hundred words. I hope that this will encourage you to either buy this book, or to borrow it from your local library (as it is rather expensive). If you wis to understand the history of Glasgow, you should read it.
This book is very much a meditation on how we remember Glasgow from 1714-1837, that is the time of the Hanoverian dynasty from the accession of George I to the accession of Queen Victoria. According to Lamont, this is a period that has been overshadowed in the collective memory by the many achievements of the Victorian Age, but which played a very important part in the creation of the city that we know today.
Lamont makes the very valid point that no-one alive today remembers Georgian Glasgow. Therefore, our individual and collective memories are dependent upon artefacts, such as buildings, literature and survivals in popular culture. He refers to Alasdair Gray’s dismissive remark that Glasgow is remembered by a music all song and some bad novels. In my view, Alastair Gray’s remark relates not to Georgian Glasgow but to its Victorian successor, and I am not sure that it is fair to refer to “No Mean City” or “Dear Green Place” as bad novels. Lamont’s point is that our cultural memory of Georgian Glasgow as been buried under our memory of its successor.
This is where it becomes difficult to convey the nuanced discussion of this book, there are effectively three stories for Georgian Glasgow: the religious and therefore political orientation of the city, Glasgow’s contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment and Glasgow’s role as a city of trade and commerce. There are various substrata to these stories, but these are the three that I intent to concentrate on.
The Religious and Political Orientation of the City.
By 1714, Glasgow was firmly aligned in support of the new dynasty, the Hanoverians. This was decided in 1689 when Presbyterians drove the Episcopalian and Jacobite clergy out of St. Mungo’s Cathedral which became a Church of Scotland High Kirk as it is to this day, even though it is still called a Cathedral. There was an immediate challenge to Hanoverian rule, when the Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard of revolt. The Duke of Argyll led a government army against him and the two armies clashed at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. Argyll retreated from the battlefield, but the Jacobite army collapsed. By the time that the Old Pretender arrived in Scotland, the rebellion was effectively over. Glasgow prepared to defend itself and offered a troop of 500 men to fight the Jacobites. The Hanoverian street-names of the city centre are a testimony to this allegiance, as is the statue of King William III and the existence of the Orange Order with its annual parades. But there have to be doubts that Glasgow’s anti-Jacobite stance has entered into the cultural memory of the city.
Bonnie Prince Charlie avoided Glasgow, except for one brief stay on his retreat to Culloden and eventual disaster. He was not the most wanted of guests, but he did gain an intimate connection with the city in Clementina Walkinshaw, his mistress and the mother of his only child Charlotte. John Galt in his novel Annals of the Parish (pub 1821) named his hero Claud Walkinshaw, which is unlikely to be an accident. Clementina Walkinshaw also figures in Sir Walter Scott’s Redgauntlet. I doubt however that the name resonates with the people of Glasgow nowadays, unless they are a member of the congregation of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. This is because she was an Episcopalian and a member of a previous congregation.
Lamont’s conclusion is that Glasgow was a Presbyterian and Hanoverian city, but that this has not survived as part of the cultural memory of Glasgow. I endorse this view heartily. If anything, the view nowadays is that the Jacobites were patriotic Scots, and that the Jacobite rebellions were wars against England, not Scottish civil wars.
Glasgow’s contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment
This is also problematic because the Scottish Enlightenment is indelibly associated with Edinburgh, despite the fact that the other three Scottish Universities made their own contributions. Two of the most famous names of the Scottish Enlightenment come from Glasgow: James Watt and Adam Smith. Watt’s invention of the steam-powered engine has made him world-famous, and Adam Smith’s book on economic theory, The Wealth of Nations, is a textbook for the subject to this day.
Glasgow however was not the capital of the country. It was not the city where John Murray set up is publishing house, which was probably more influential in establishing Edinburgh as the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment than David Hume’s presence in the city. Murray was the publisher of the two pre-eminent Scottish writers of his generation, Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Glasgow offered John Galt as competition. Robert Burns wrote poetry about Edina fair. It was David versus Goliath, but David did not have a slingshot.
Another factor is that Georgian Edinburgh has survived. Edinburgh still as its New Town, which is still a major centre of cultural activity, the Edinburg Festivals. Pockets of Georgian Glasgow are still in existence – St Andrew’s in the Square and the GOMA building for instance – but the vast majority of it was built over by the Victorians and Edwardians. The artefacts that remain are in places like the Hunterian Museum and the Mitchell Library. It is hardly surprising that, in these circumstances, the Scottish Enlightenment has not had a great impact on the cultural memory of Glasgow.
Glasgow’s role as a city of trade and commerce
This is the part of the history of Georgian Glasgow that has entered the cultural memory. People are aware that Glasgow was a port and a centre of trade and commerce. Virginia Street and Jamaica Street are still there and are a testimony to the trade that took place. There is an awareness of the riches of the Tobacco Lords, the Sugar Barons and the cotton importers, and the wealth that they brought to the city. There is a belief that a member of the Glassford family had a family portrait altered to paint out the black servant, and this has been repeated in respectable family histories as fact. Lamont points out that the truth is more prosaic. When the portrait was recently restored, it was found that a patina of dust had obscured the black servant.
This could be a metaphor for Glasgow’s attitude to slavery and the slave trade. We are aware of the abolitionist societies in Glasgow. Some people may be aware that Adam Smith opposed slavery because it was an inefficient means of production, as well as morally reprehensible. Where there has been a collective amnesia is that we have streets named after people wo profited from slavery, institutions that were built on the profits of slavery, and even statues to people whose family wealth derived from slavery. James Watt and William Ewart Gladstone are cases in point.
Conclusion
Lamont’s conclusion is that the cultural memory of Georgian Glasgow is not a strong one, and that there are many reasons for this. Victorian Glasgow is the city of the shipyards. Railway lines and railways stations were built through whole sections of the city. This is the city that we remember. There is very little in the way of buildings that preserve the memory of Georgian Glasgow. The artefacts are to be found in the museums and art galleries. Glasgow cannot compete with Edinburgh in terms of the literary heritage of the Georgian period.
Georgian Glasgow needs to be remembered if only as the precursor that made Victorian Glasgow possible. Lamont sets out to rectify that gap in our knowledge.
I hope that I have summed Lamont’s arguments up properly. It is difficult to sum up such a nuanced book in a few hundred words. I hope that this will encourage you to either buy this book, or to borrow it from your local library (as it is rather expensive). If you wis to understand the history of Glasgow, you should read it.
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